Metric Feet as Units Shaping the Course of a Piano Piece

In this paper, I make an attempt to present the analytical possibilities offered by using metric feet as units that shape the course of a (piano) piece. This approach results from cognitive studies that clearly show that the perception of auditory events is based on grouping them into larger units on the basic strong–weak axis. In this approach, the foot is a scheme of one strong sound and one or two weak sounds (in different combinations) that repeats regularly in the course of the work. In this article, I present the most common ways of distinguishing strong sounds: using duration, dynamics, and pitch (features derived analogously from language, distinguishing strong syllables from the speech stream) and characterising the most common feet.

Jan Rakowski (1898–1962): Viola D'amore Spiritus Movens in Poland

The aim of the article is to present the profile of the outstanding Polish musician Jan Rakowski. His artistic activities were related to playing the viola and viola d'amore, which was completely unknown at that time. The author describes the use of viola d'amore in Poland until the end of the 19th century, and outlines its popularity in Western Europe and the United States. In order to reliably present the figure of Jan Rakowski, press excerpts about his achievements concerning playing the viola d’amore are presented. This leads to the assessment of his activity. An important element of the work is a reference to Stefan Bolesław Poradowski’s composition, Concerto for viola d’amore and string orchestra, and drawing attention to the problem with the dating and titling of the work.

Selected Aspects of the Activity of the Galician Music Society in Lviv

The aim of this article is to present the scattered information on the significant undertakings of the Galician Music Society. The scope of the paper covers the period from the founding of this institution in the context of life and musical activity in Lviv at the time, reaching also to the period before its establishment. The author draws attention to the role of the rules and regulations present in the statutes of this institution, which concern the Society's ways of financing its activity.

The Categories of Time and Musical Form in Paweł Mykietyn’s Concerto No. 2 for Cello and Symphony Orchestra

The paper supplements the research on the latest Paweł Mykietyn's work. It broadens the spectrum of problems related to the technique of deconstruction in his works and allows for a better understanding of the structure of the Concerto No. 2 for cello and symphony orchestra. The main research method is descriptive analysis, bringing Paweł Mykietyn's musical language closer to the harmonic material, textural systems, agogic-metric structures, and the concept of form. The analysis is based on the score of the 2nd Concerto for Cello and Symphony Orchestra, published in 2019 by the PWM Edition in Kraków. The structure of the paper includes: introduction, three paragraphs and a summary. The characteristics of Paweł Mykietyn’s work contained in the introduction will allow the reader to become familiar with stylistic tendencies at various stages of the composer's work. The section devoted to the genesis and reception aims to present the history of the creation of the analysed work, as well as its contexts and resonance. The analytical sketch in the context of the issues of time and form will allow to present selected aspects of the compositional technique.

The Representations of Carnival in Fantasias for Piano and Orchestra by Darius Milhaud and Heitor Villa-Lobos

In the 1920s, Frenchman Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) and Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959), inspired by the carnival, created works that resemble each other in genre and scoring. These are the fantasias for piano and orchestra: Mômoprecóce by Villa-Lobos and Le Carnaval d'Aix, Op. 83b by Milhaud. The article presents an attempt to analyse the pieces in the context of carnivalesque aesthetics as well as musical representation (as described by Peter Kivy and Lawrence Kramer) and seeks to deeply comprehend the phenomenon’s resonance in the composers’ music.

Sounds of Carnival: The Musical Language of Le Carnaval d’Aix op. 83b by Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) is one of the leading composers of the French avantgarde in the 20th century. His stylistic idiom was formed under the influence of the folklore of various cultures from around the world, which he encountered during his numerous travels. One of the compositions inspired by foreign elements, both musical and cultural, is the fantasia Le Carnaval d'Aix op. 83b (1926) for piano and orchestra. The analysis from the genre perspective aims to examine the musical poetics of the composition (including Milhaud’s specific neoclassical strategies) and its links with Carnival. As a result, a dualistic perspective towards the musical language of the composer is proposed as exemplified by the work in question.

Works for Harpsichord by Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko—Between the Past and the Present

The article is devoted to two works by Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko: the cycle Nymphs for soprano saxophone and harpsichord, and the miniature For Berenika. A miniature in the Baroque style. The introduction contains information about the composer and basic facts about the pieces in question. In the following sections of the article the author analyses: harmony (tonal arrangement and harmonic relations), form (formal models, motifs, rhythms), texture and sound as well as aesthetic aspects. Based on these elements, the key determinants of the composer's style are presented, referring to the Baroque techniques as well as those typical of the postmodern musical language, also discussing the issues of non-musical content resulting from the programme titles of the works. In the analytical part, the author presents an innovative analytical method consisting in reducing the notation of the harpsichord part to the basso continuo notation to verify the thesis that the choice of the instrument (in this case, the harpsichord) determines the style of the composition. The analytical argument leads to interesting research conclusions and is an attempt to define the composer's musical language.

Visions of the Apocalypse in 20th-century Music (Olivier Messiaen, George Crumb, Bernadetta Matuszczak, Aleksander Lasoń)

This article aims to various interpretations of The Apocalypse of St. John in 20th-century music. Because of its comprehensive use of symbols and mystery, The Apocalypse was often an inspiration for painters, poets, and composers. Particularly, worth analysing are symbols and visions used in selected compositions, such as The Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen, Black Angels by George Crumb, Apokalipsis and Septem Tubae by Bernadetta Matuszczak, Symphony ‘1999’  by Aleksander Lasoń. Seven trumpets, seven horns, God’s anger, angels, destruction, God’s omnipotence, the victory of good over evil, and hope—those are the most common symbols used in these compositions. Transcendental and mysterious meaning is reflected by composers in various ways (from timbre and instrumentation, rhythmic diminution and tempo that shows eternity, to quotations and characters from The Apocalypse). Music written by different authors gives us a broad perspective on how the topic of Apocalypse was adapted in music.

Music for Nine Post Cards as an Example of Kankyo Ongaku i.e ‘Music that Floats in the Air Like a Smoke’

The aim of the article is an attempt to present the genesis and describe the first compositions that formulated the Japanese ambient trend, i.e. kankyo ongaku. The subject of the research is both the history of the creation of the series by Hiroshi Yoshimura, Music for Nine Post Cards, which became the cornerstone of later albums from the ambient and minimal music trend in Japan, as well as individual works included in the cycle under study. Based on the results of the automated and auditory analysis of Music for Nine Post Cards, the structure of musical works and their stylistic features are determined. For automated analysis, Sonic Visualiser was used—an application used to create a graphical visualisation of the music content of audio files. As a result of the research, the answer was obtained as to how Hiroshi Yoshimura and Satoshi Ashikawa realised the original assumptions of kankyo ongaku.

Unknown Fugues from the Manuscript L 1636 of The Diocesan Library in Sandomierz

The aim of the article is to present the content of the unknown manuscript L 1636 of The Diocesan Library in Sandomierz, with particular emphasis on the fugues contained therein. A closer acquaintance with the manuscript, dated around 1725, allowed to enrich the image of the musical culture in Poland in the first decades of the 18th century. The text is divided into three parts: 1. Description of the source; 2. Manuscript’s contents; 3. Conclusions from the analysis of the fugues from the manuscript PL-SA L 1636. The article is also accompanied by an appendix containing a critical edition of the fugues from the described manuscript.

Characteristics of the Neoclassical Style in the Sonata for Organ by Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz

The aim of this study was to describe the structure of the organ Sonata by Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz and to show its Neoclassical features. For this purpose, the main elements of the piece were described, such as: form, melody, texture, harmony, rhythm, tempo and timbre. Despite the typical Neoclassical elements, the presence of the Romantic elements in the piece was also stated, which is typical of Paciorkiewicz's aesthetics.

Leonard Bernstein’s Testament — The Unanswered Question in the Light of Conducting Issues

In 1973, Leonard Bernstein gave a series of six lectures at Harvard University, entitled The Unanswered Question: Six talks at Harvard. This interdisciplinary course, drawing on Noam Chomsky's theory of transformational-generative grammar, presented an original conception of music as a universal language based on tonality and outlined the history of its development, concluding with Bernstein’s personal credo regarding its future. The argumentation used, although encompassing fields as diverse as linguistics, literary studies, philosophy and art history, was based primarily on musical analyses presented at the piano, supplemented by recordings of the symphonic works being discussed, performed under the baton of Bernstein himself. The Harvard lectures thus represent the summa of his aesthetic reflections and performance experiences, providing a unique insight into his views on music and its interpretation. This paper focuses on synthesising these views, subjecting them to factual verification, and then showing their influence on Bernstein's art of conducting through the example of the recordings used in The Unanswered Question series, focusing in particular on the issue of expression.

Music as an Encounter What is music?

One of the possible answers for this question is that music establishes a specific form of communication, which finally occurs to mean an encounter. How has this conclusion been created and how to justify it? It all comes from the interdisciplinary encounter of different perspectives of academic research. Setting in a relation, and so referring to each other, sociological and phenomenological methods result in discovering music (musical language and style, piece of music, musical thought and process) that is an effect and means of social communication. When providing this statement with deeper insight, one comes to the conclusion that every social communication has an encounter as its basis. Whereas so called 'philosophy of encounter', or 'of dialogue', which grows from the phenomenological radices makes it clear that it is an encounter of the two persons: a dialogue between 'I' and 'You'. The groundwork of this musical drama, like of a drama of any other kind of communication, is the reciprocity that establishes a specific relation. Alfred Schütz called it: 'relation of mutual tuning'. It is a tuning of thoughts and wills of participants of the encounter. This supplies the relation with an almost alchemical power of metamorphosis, making it possible to transform 'I' and 'You' into 'We'. And so it makes a harmony. Conclusions from new academic disciplines remain therefore close to the old knowledge – for Boethius already saw music as harmony. What is music? There are as many answers as perspectives. How to reach the truth then? There is a need for a meeting (sic!).

Rivals [Rywale], or the Burgeois Opera in Kraków: History, Cultural Context, Meaning

During the period of stagnation in Kraków’s theatre culture in the 2nd half of the 18th century, an opera entitled Rivals, or the Tattoo in Kraków [Rywale czyli czapstrzyk w Krakowie] was created by Kacper Meciszewski (libretto) and Zagórski (music; not preserved to this day), unknown by first name. Although mentioned several times in the theatre studies literature, it has not been by far a subject of separate musicological research. This opera is an example of a work that can be described as a 'burgeois opera', i.e. a model of magnate operas, regarding to both theme and structure of the libretto, as well as to musical arrangement, transferred to the middle class standards and entrepreneurial capabilities of that time. Seemingly non-original, secondary and, due to its provincial character, relevant only to the 18th century residents of the former capital city, it seems to have a slightly deeper meaning. In order to understand the significance of Rivals in its full, this article will present the history of the comedy’s creation and staging, an analysis of the libretto and a hypothetical form of musical setting in the context and in comparison with analogous operas of that period. For a better understanding of the title tattoo meaning, the history of its creation and reception as well as the condition of Kraków regiment band will be outlined.

Human-made noise pollutes the Earth further every day. It is important to investigate how that process affects the whole biosphere. I present a symbolic case of the Australian lyrebird, which is a songbird that mimics the sounds of its surroundings. Today its songs sound like chainsaw and other heavy machinery. All animal species are polluted by human noise to some extent. There are many studies about sonic perception in animals, but it seems that this knowledge is still hardly popularised. The phenomenon of sharing sounds between humans and other animals may also be better understood by new approaches to studies on cultural evolution.

Tablature with History: About a Little-known Seventeenth-century Music Manuscript from the University Library in Poznań

Research on French lute music is currently a rather rarely discussed topic among Polish musicologists. The reason for this is probably the fact that most manuscripts with lute tablatures have already been described and the repertoire is quite wellknown. However, it turns out that Polish libraries still store little-known manuscripts, which are interesting not only because of the music, but also because of the non-musical material they contain. The copy of 17th-century French lute music stored by the University Library in Poznań, where apart from music, there are also non-musical elements showing its fascinating history, is an example of this. The article presents the preliminary results of the research into the structure, content, provenance and dating of this manuscript. In the first part, the author focuses on the physical features of the tablature source, and then she characterises its musical and non-musical content. The work is also accompanied by photographs of the manuscript and tables presenting its structure and repertoire concordances.

Recognition and reflection of the radially structured semantic intertextual raster in the opera Ariadne auf Naxos Op. 60 by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, are the goals of this paper, with the awareness that ‘reading’ of this complex textual amalgam cannot be comprehensive and that this is only one of the possible ways of looking at different languages, their texts, and relationships in which they come in, with the emphasis on the connection between the music and architectural texts. The focus is to spot some of the paths in this specific music-scenic maze. The recognition of the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ opera house implies the withdrawal of the parallels between the music-dramatic and the architectural level. The concept of ‘opera within the opera’ is simultaneously present in the musical-dramatic sphere (opera Ariadne in opera Ariadne auf Naxos) and in the architectural sphere (opera/residential house in the opera house). By concurring with the different meaning of the word ‘opera’ which it has in the music-drama (opera as a musical-drama work) and architectural language (opera as an architectural object), we carry out the terms meta-opera ‘per square’ (‘metaopera’) and meta-opera ‘per cube’ (‘metaopera’).

In this paper, the ballet of Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring is interpreted from the perspective of Gaston Bachelard’s philosophical thought. Bachelard’s systematic psychoanalysis of literary images in The Psychoanalysis of Fire is applied to the interpretation of musical images in The Rite of Spring. Bearing in mind that rhythm is a key characteristic of Stravinsky’s composition, the paper analyses the immediate correspondences between Stravinsky’s and Bachelard’s perception and interpretation of rhythm in the works under consideration.

Erratum for… an autobiography. Flaws in Lebensbeschreibung by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

Lebensbeschreibung an autobiography by appreciated composer Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739–1799) is an intriguing source of knowledge about musical life and the realities for the era for this outstanding artist. Unfortunately, it contains errors in chronology, inconsistencies, and mistakes which influenced all studies concerning Dittersdorf’s music and life. However, the autobiography lacks reliable information, concerning the origins of his father, Paul Ditters, the circumstances of hiring a young violinist for the court orchestra of prince Joseph Friedrich von Hildburghausen, and the chronology of the composer’s trip to Italy in 1763. There is also a lack of biographical details of Wrocław/Breslau bishop Philipp Gotthard von Schaffgotsch, financial matters of Dittersdorf’s activity in Vienna, circumstances of success of the singspiel Doktor und Apotheker, relations with Wrocław music society, and with the court of Friedrich August von Braunschweig in Oleśnica/Oels, the composer’s family circle, and his activity in the field of sacred music. According to a legend, Dittersdorf finished his autobiography two days before his death, but there are indications that he started writing his autobiography a year earlier. The aim of this article is to point out the flaws of Lebensbeschreibung, and to supplement the knowledge about Dittersdorf with verified information from historical records.

Zenek virus. An attempt to analyse the memetic phenomenon of Zenon Martyniuk's work

Zenon Martyniuk – founder and main singer of a disco polo band Akcent has been triumphant in the Polish music scene for many years, and his infectious songs are steadily taking down barriers and becoming more widespread in various Polish institutions of culture. This article attempts to analyse the memetic phenomenon of Zenek, which originates in its easily accessible melody and simple lyrical layer with clear references to folklore. Are we experiencing the emergence of a new 'musical meme', which makes listening to disco polo no longer embarassing and trashy?

Heitor Villa-Lobos and Darius Milhaud: towards fascinations, musical approaches and personalities

The article aims to examine the circumstances of Milhaud and Villa-Lobos’s encounter, who are the significant figures of 20th century French and Brazilian avant-garde. The analysis of the principle aspects of youthful inspirations, musical approaches and personalities as per Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s concept of the integral interpretation, presents the impact of cultural milieux on artists’ aesthetics, together with their apparent fascination with Carnival. Additionally, the study highlights a connection between the composers’ natures and the fantasy implied either as a category or a genre fantasia. As a result, various analogies are identified linking the composers’ life and musical language.

Ludwik Wawrzynowicz as an active organizer of cultural life in the Częstochowa region

Ludwik Wawrzynowicz was a graduate of the Music Conservatory in Warsaw. He started his professional career in Warsaw as a singer of the Warsaw Opera. In 1902 he came to Częstochowa, where he took the position of artistic director of the "Lutnia" Singing Society and choir conductor. In 1904 he founded the L. Wawrzynowicz Music School in Częstochowa. He ran the facility and was an active teacher for 42 years, until 1946. The school contributed significantly to the flourishing of Częstochowa's musical environment and the city's cultural life. Wawrzynowicz was an animator of musical culture and an organizer of numerous concerts. He has performed as a conductor, pianist, organist and speaker. He was also a journalist and regular music rapporteur for "Goniec Częstochowski" in the years 1906–1939. He also published articles in other periodicals. He was a versatile activist, an active popularizer of musical culture. He exerted a significant influence on the development of the musical life of Częstochowa.

Topics in music – definitions, history, meaning

Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato by Bernardo Pasquini: A Simple Entertainment or an Elaborate Charade?

Duels of the Sound: Pietro Antonio Locatelli Versus Jean-Marie Leclair

The tradition of musical duels harkens back to the days of the ancient Greece. One of the earliest examples of a musical rivalry is the myth of Marsyas and Apollo, which ends tragically for the satyr. Without doubt, the battles of the ancients served as an inspiration for the next generations of musicians. In each era, they took a different form, tailored to the prevailing norms and customs. In the 16th century the singing competitions of the Meistersingers became extremely popular, and along with the development of instrumental music in 17th century, duels, in which the main subject-matter of the dispute was the superiority of one of the performers in terms of interpretation and fluidity in playing a given instrument, gained increased importance.

Reception of Joseph Wieniawski’s work in the light of nineteenthcentury literature – a review of sources

A Story Enchanted in Music – Historical Verismo in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s I Medici

ahat ilī – Sister of Gods by Olga Tokarczuk and Aleksander Nowak: From the Novel to the Opera Libretto

The Metaphor of Movement and Its Materialisation in the Spatial Music of the 20th Century

Concerts of the Jewish Orchestra in the Łódź Ghetto During the Second World War

Jewish Music and Radical Jewish Culture: A Brief Outline of the Definitions and Content of Jewish Music in the Past and Nowadays

The main purpose of the article is to describe John Zorn’s approach to klezmer music and Jewish music tradition in general. The text was split into shorter paragraphs. The first part of the article is dedicated to providing an overview of the problems concerning the definition of Jewish music. The second part focuses on analysing klezmer motifs in John Zorn’s selected works and Jewish symbols present in the visual layer connected with his works. The last paragraph contains a summary and conclusions.

Ergonomics and Physiology of Piano Playing

Much has been said about performance, styles and interpretation. However, we should ask ourselves where they come from, what they depend on, and what factors influence them. The answer is much more complex. This article deals with the problem of piano technique as an element on which interpretation, sound and expression depend to a large extent. The piano is an instrument with incredible tonal possibilities, but it requires fingering skills, the ability to “feel” the key and certain physical strength which is directly related to the technique we use. Achieving a high level in playing requires years of diligent work, perseverance and determination. Technical proficiency, in turn, facilitates the expression and appropriate interpretation, in line with the style of a given musical period and the feelings of the pianist-performer. So we are talking about two things that inexorably influence each other – the workshop and its result, the  hape of latter depends largely on the first. This article deepens the knowledge of piano workshop so that in the end nothing comes in the way between performers, listeners and music.

The Artistic Profile of Aleksander Zarzycki: A Forgotten Composer of the Romantic Era 

Mieczysław Wajnberg and the Category of Borderland

Digitisation of Folk Archives: A Crisis of Tradition or the New Life on the Internet? An Example of Adolf Dygacz’s Collection

Henryk Mikołaj Gorecki's Chamber Works in the Context of the Changes of the Composer's Style: Selected Examples

The French Art of the Natural Horn Playing and the Adaptation of Valve Mechanisms in the 19th Century

The article is an attempt at identifying issues related to the problem of the adaptation of valve mechanisms in Parisian orchestras and Conservatory. Opinions and postulates of supporters and opponents are being presented, as well as the concepts of combining the valve instrument with the  use of the natural horn playing technique. In this context, the perspective of natural horn players, who contributed to the significant delay in the adaptation of valve horns in Paris, are being discussed. Further parts of the text explain the construction of natural horns commonly used in the discussed period in France (cor solo and cor d’orchestre), as well as various issues related to the specific playing technique. The differences between cor alto and cor basse are being examined as well as the concept of cor mixte proposed by Frédéric Duvernoy.

Adam Franciszek Epler (1902–1940): A Forgotten Musician of Interwar Lviv

This article is an introduction to the artistic profile of a Polish conductor, composer and guitarist Adam Franciszek Epler. This forgotten creative persona left the artistic legacy of compositions and arrangements for mandolin orchestra ensemble. Moreover, he was the first Polish guitarist playing Polish lute music, a founder of the first Polish guitar trio named Lwowskie Trio Gitarowe and a musician in the most popular interwar radio broadcast Wesoła Lwowska Fala. As a composer and conductor of the Orchestra of Mandolin Society “Hejnał” from Lviv, he also took part in numerous radio broadcasts of Polish Radio Lviv. His musical activities, similarly to the entire mandolin heritage in Poland and guitar history in interwar Poland, requires further research, and this article is one of the first contributions to these research topics.

Sinfonietta for String Orchestra by Weronika Ratusińska in the Context of the Issue of (Sub)Genre

The purpose of the article is to focus on certain terminological and historical aspects related to the genre of sinfonietta in the Polish music of the 20th and 21st century. In the introduction, the author presents the definition and general characteristics, listing the sources and the most representative works in the Polish music. Additionally, she presents numerical statistics and classification of the sinfonietta in Polish music and on this basis she analyses one of the most interesting works representing the type of sinfonietta-transcription – Sinfonietta for string orchestra by Weronika Ratusińska from 2009. The author analyses the use and manner of modification of musical motifs, the way in which the sound layer is shaped and the relation between Ratusińska's work and tradition of the genre.

Capturing Ephemerality: George Brecht’s For a Drummer from the Perspective of a Performer

The main purpose of the article is to present an individual approach of analysing and reperforming For a Drummer by George Brecht, a legendary composer and a member of Fluxus. The text is divided into several parts. The first half of the article is dedicated to the history and definition of performance art, the second one focuses on a performer persona and their artistic abilities. The latter leads to an actual analysis of a creative process, starting with a short biographical background of Brecht, followed by reading and understanding of the event score with a culmination found in the author’s re-performance.

Gender in Traditional Music: An Overview of the New Challenges Related to Polish Ethnomusicology in the 21st Century

The subject of the article is to present the feminist trend in Western ethnomusicology and then to compare it with the state of research in Poland. The query included the latest Western musicological and ethnomusicological literature, as well as the known sources about gender in Polish traditional music. The author, based on the experience gained during the field research carried out in recent years, indicates possible changes in conducting and analysing the field in order to obtain more accurate knowledge about gender performativity in Polish folklore.

Bones and Concertina: The Sailors' Instruments that Have Survived Over the Centuries

The history of the sailors' instruments is currently a barely investigated area. In the past, bones were used frequently in a variety of music genres, whereas today they seem to be forgotten in certain countries. The simplicity of playing that once was their advantage has also resulted in the small number of written sources concerning the technique of playing as well as the way of producing of this instrument. Despite this fact, bones were the ground for what is called the "musical recycling". Concertina, in spite of its much more complicated structure and technique of playing, is more popular and has been described in several secondary sources. There are even schools of playing on this instrument available. Unfortunately, concertina is rarely used in concert halls too. Both instruments, thanks to their simplicity and small size, visited almost every part of the world in the era of great sailing ships, but today they remain known and used only in specialised environments.

Edward Mąkosza: A Biography and Activity of the Composer

Edward Mąkosza (born on 13th November 1886 in Lisków, died on 25th April 1973 in Częstochowa) was a Polish composer, pedagogue, conductor, organist and ethnomusicologist. He was the main organiser of the musical life in Częstochowa. He is an author of circa 1000 compositions. He received numerous commendations and was a hero of the Jasna Góra Monastery. The article, presenting Edward Mąkosz’s biography, is to serve as an intro-duction to the comprehensive study of his work. The subsequent periods of his life (childhood, youth, professional work until World War II, professional work after World War II) are discussed. Then, we focus on the composer’s broadly understood activity: social, pedagogical and artistic undertakings. The article aims to show the professor’s entire life.

The Reception of American Jazz in Japan: An Outline of the Problem

The following article presents the history of Japanese jazz from the first musical contacts to contemporary successes and problems of the jazz music market. For the development and evolution of jazz in Japan, an important role was played by the presence of American military forces in the Philippines (even before the post-war occupation of Japan), which as an American dependent territory had the opportunity to remain in cultural contacts with the United States, where jazz was born at the beginning of the 20th century and became one of the most popular forms of music. Beside the contact with Filipino musicians, who were the first from whom the Japanese learned jazz, the establishment and development of jazz cafes (jazzu-kissa) were also important for the development of jazz in the Land of the Cherry Blossom, which played a huge role in the strengthening the interest in jazz and the shaping of musical tastes. The article also shows the influence of jazz on the formation of a modern, American-based lifestyle of middle-class representatives in Japan. In addition, the article discusses the complex issue of the authenticity of Japanese jazz in relation to American jazz and the influence of world-famous Japanese musicians, such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, on overcoming a given stereotype. The aim of the article is to show the universality and at the same time the locality of contemporary Japanese jazz as well as to show what the specificity of jazz in Japan is.

Partimenti by Bernardo Pasquini – Realisation of Selected Bassi from Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato

Bernardo Pasquini (1637–1710) was one of the very first composers to write partimenti, albeit he did not use the word “partimento”. He titled his works for one or two keyboards, written in the form of basso continuo, as Basso, Basso continuo, Sonata, Versetto etc. One of his manuscripts that include partimenti, entitled Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato, is held in the British Library of London, under the signature number Ms. Add. 31501, I. Two works from this collection, Basso Continuo [II] and [Basso IV], are realised by the Author as fully composed pieces and presented below. The realisation of these Partimenti intends to engage a polyphonic texture according to the rules of basso continuo and counterpoint adequate to the aesthetics and techniques of the music from the Baroque era. Realisations represent different genres of instrumental music of the 18th century, they apply counterpoint (fugue, fughetta and imitation texture) or freer techniques (figurative sonata, polyphonic fantasia).

Selected Facts from the Biography and Activity of Seweryn Kortowicz in the Light of the Sources from the Archdiocesan Archives in Gniezno and the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań

Seweryn Kortowicz was a musician and composer active in the region of Greater Poland, an important centre of Polish music culture, in the 19th century. The composer’s work was preserved mainly in Gniezno, but also in Poznań. He was a local composer, serving as a music director in the Gniezno cathedral for over 50 years. The article presents the current state of research on the life and work of this composer.

Musical Education As a Memetic Practice

Memes as cultural transmission units or imitation units were first described by the British biologist Richard Dawkins. Being the equivalent of genes, they are able to undergo replication processes, spread “from brain to brain” and evolve. These catchy, attractive and easy to remember structures are also found in music. Based on the assumption that memetics is not a popular science among musicians, both practitioners and teachers, the analysis undertaken in this text is an attempt to reflect memetic practice in the methods of the musical education developed by Zoltan Kodály, Carl Orff, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and Edwin Gordon. It is also an offer for educators who are looking for new inspiration to work with children, either in music or general education.

Music in Modern Football (Soccer)

In the following article, the author discusses the connections between the worlds of music and football, how they used to look in the past decades and how they look in the modern times. He refers to the sociological studies that try to explain so close connections between these two different worlds. He addresses stadium chants, which, in his opinion, should be treated as a phenomenon that is underestimated in the public debate when the subject of collective music performances is covered. He shows, by the example of Poland and England, the differences of the fans’ musical customs, depending on the country. Another important element of the paper are examples of the national anthems’ huge meaning for the national football teams’ matches. Author cites musical compositions inspired by football and tells stories of the songs that became the fans’ informal anthems. He shows many figures that connect the concert halls with the dressing rooms of the most important stadiums in the world – musicians that love football and footballers who have exceptional musical knowledge or even start they own musical career. Moreover, the author describes the new ways of using music in the modern football in order to change football games into the impressive shows that engage all senses of the spectators.

Black Metal Through the Eyes of the Philologist: An Attempt to Define the Term Linguistically

The main purpose of the article is to present a new definition of an extreme music genre, namely black metal, based on the linguistic theory of prototypes. This necessity eventuates from its expansion, as a result of which the genre (specifically: its forms) is blowing up from within. In the face of diversity of black metal songs and the fact that all of traditional black metal’s main features could be invalidated by the opposing work of one of contemporary bands, a new, more capacious model of a definition is needed. The presented model is a prototypical categorisation derived from a postmodern linguistic paradigm.

The Musical Sources of the Former Miners’ Orchestra of Wałbrzych (Waldenburger Bergkapelle) from the Collection of Warsaw University Library

In the article, the author investigates 24 musical manuscripts belonging to former Miners’ Orchestra of Wałbrzych (Waldenburger Bergkapelle), which used the sources for concerts of the orchestra. The analysed manuscripts have not yet been researched or catalogued in RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales) database before. The ensemble’s repertoire was analysed and the collection’s characteristics, including copyists, watermarks and stamps, were examined. It allowed to assess the provenience of the manuscripts and make certain remarks about the type of repertoire played by Waldenburger Bergkapelle. The results of the analysis were presented in the context that can be found in secondary sources, widely describing the activity of the orchestra. The author also carried on cataloguing in Warsaw University Library, creating the catalogue in the Muscat RISM system. Considering the numbers on shelfmarks, it can be assumed that the original collection contained circa one hundred of musical sources. However, only a small part of them is known and catalogued. Therefore, the knowledge of the collection remains incomplete and is worth further investigation.

Irène Régine Wieniawska: An Attempt to Reconstruct the Life and Work of the Composer

Irène Régine Jessy Maria Wieniawska was born on 16th May 1879 in Brussels as the youngest child of an outstanding Polish violinist and composer of the 19th century, Henryk Wieniawski, and Isabelle Bessie Hampton-Wieniawska. As the only one of Wieniawski’s children, she followed the footsteps of her father and chose the profession of a musician. This work brings focus to the lesser known facts from the composer’s life, which greatly impacted the formation of her creative character, including the fact that Irène Wieniawska used a considerable number of pseudonyms, which allowed her to keep her anonymity and therefore resulted in part of her work to be forgotten for many years. As in several cases of other female composers of the early 20th century, the name Wieniawska is currently poorly recognised, even though she was a known composer and performer in London between the years 1900–1932. Wieniawska’s songs were very popular, and her creative legacy remains equally interesting, which I would like to draw attention to in my paper and discuss the latest catalogue of her works, developed by me.

The Activity of the Symphony Orchestra in Litzmannstadt Ghetto (1940–1944)

The article presents the activity of the symphony orchestra in Litzmannstadt Ghetto, existing in Łódź in the years 1940–1944. It was the first and longestrunning camp of this type in Poland, with over 200,000 Jews from the Wartheland and Western Europe. There, the orchestra consisting of fortyfour musicians was functioning. It employed the artists associated with Łódź Symphony Orchestra before the war, and from 1941 its musicians also performed under that name.

The aim of the article is to familiarise the audience with the history of Litzmannstadt Ghetto and, above all, to present the music that was heard by the imprisoned community. During World War II, the ghetto was the only place in Łódź where culture and art had any chance to develop. The musicians could legally conduct cultural activities while being  subject to strict censorship of Judenrat. Teodor Ryder, a pianist, conductor, organiser and promoter of musical life, was the person responsible for the selection of the repertoire for the orchestra was. Starting from March 1941, the House of Culture, located at 3 Krawiecka Street, was its official seat. The events taking place there gathered crowds – only during the first year of the activity of the orchestra, around seventy thousand listeners were present at the concerts.

The Sketch on the Issue of Determinism and Indeterminism in Music of the 2nd Half of the 20th Century in the Context of Transformation of the Academic and Philosophical Thought

In the second half of the 20th century, integral serialism and rational way of thinking were considered as an indicate of determinism in music. At the same time, indeterminism was associated with the music composed with the use of chance operations, classified like that by Henri Pousseur in his reading entitled Theorie und Praxis in der neusten Musik, delivered in Darmstadt in 1958. However, certain music pieces show that the demarcation between determinism and indeterminism in music remains unclear. The author attempts to outline the problem of determinism and indeterminism in avant-garde music of the second half of the 20th century, taking into consideration selected crucial compositions and the context of development in science and philosophy of that time.

Tadeusz Kocyba’s Music for Porwanie Baltazara Gąbki TV series

The article presents the synthetic analysis of the soundtrack of Tadeusz Kocyba (1933–2007) for the 13-episode series titled Porwanie Baltazara Gąbki [The Abduction of Balthazar Sponge] (1969–1970, dir. by W. Nehrebecki, A. Ledwig, E. Wątor, J. Byrdy and al., Animation Films Studio in Bielsko-Biała). The soundtrack is analysed in the strict context of the film narration and the visual layer of the movies in order to present the composer’s strategies in terms of instrumentation, musical implication of emotions dictated by the plot, illustrative music, creating of the characteristics of places, using of the leitmotivs. Among the features that are characteristic for the soundtrack of this series there is the significant meaning and construction of the themes that are connected with the figure of the antagonist, referring twice to the musical identification of the existing region (theme song – Krakowiak dance and the quotation from the St Mary’s Trumpet Call), the lack of concentration on shaping of the clear themes, high diversity of the musical line, the lack of mickey-mousing and the special position of two instruments: clarinet and jonika, which have various functions.

More Than Just a Background: The Music of Paweł Mykietyn in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Theatre

The article is devoted to the role and functions of Paweł Mykietyn’s music in the theatre of Krzysztof Warlikowski. The modified version of music classification in the theatre proposed by Patrice Pavis serves as a starting point for the considerations. Providing the examples of certain performances, I describe each function as well as the characteristics of Paweł Mykietyn’s theatrical music. It turns out that in the case of Warlikowski’s theatre one cannot see music as an addition – music is an inseparable element in the process of establishing the meanings in each staging.

This essay aims to interconnect the aspects of canon, cultural musicology, music and language with the systematic category of dispositif. In a short overview on the disciplinary canon debate, the essay describes the idea of a musical canon and questions its methodological status in musicology. The conclusion is that (aesthetic) value judgements are to be rejected as scientific (consequently rational or intersubjectively reasonable) selection criteria. The second argument draws on Lawrence Kramer’s notion of “constructive description”, which addresses the relation of music and language and helps in understanding the canon as a specific historical agency of different overlapping discourses. In order to outline an integrative ontology for the epistemological interest of cultural musicology, the last section synthesises these arguments in the Foucauldian idea of dispositif. 

Partimento – Practice or Art?

Partimento practice originated in Italy and the most important centre of this art was Naples. In general, partimento is a kind of an abbreviated form of musical notation. It uses the notation of basso continuo: it provides one voice, which in most cases is the bass part supported with figures of b.c. notation. The figures may be neglected if the performer is supposed to follow the so-called rule of the octave. Practicing partimento was a way to master compositional skills: thorough bass, harmony, counterpoint, form, texture, motivic coherence. Practicing this art was rewarded with an unparalleled fluency in improvisation on keyboard instruments. It was the basic method of composition teaching at the famous conservatories in Naples. The conservatories were founded in the 16th century as orphanages but from the 17th century onward they turned into important professional schools of music. The students of the conservatories attained the highest degree of musical knowledge enabling them to pursue great careers as composers and performers (both in the vocal and instrumental realm) in Italy and abroad. Besides Naples the art of partimento was taught in other Italian cities, e.g. Rome and Bologna. Its influence was also seen in other countries, mostly in Germany.

Besides being exercises, the partimento notation was also included in pieces of music not necessarily intended for teaching purposes. Bernardo Pasquini (1637–1710) was one of the very first composers to write partimenti; however, he did not use the word “partimento”. His works for one or two keyboards, written as b.c., were called by him for example “basso”, “basso continuo”, “sonata”, “versetto”. An interesting question nowadays is if partimento is an old-fashion method of teaching or an inspiration for artists seeking for individual ways of own expression. 

Missa in Dis by Antoni Milwid (1755–1837) in the Context of the Repertoire of the Monastery’s Chapel from Czerwińsk

The musical life of Czerwińsk nad Wisłą at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries was strictly connected with the artistic activity of Antoni Milwid (1755–1837), a composer and organist. Although there are ten compositions signed with his name preserved in the collection of the monastery’s chapel as well as other manuscripts seemingly written with his hand, the religious output of the composer has not been investigated so far.

The article discusses briefly the activity of Czerwińsk’s chapel during the difficult time of the partitions of Poland and secularisation of the monastery, sketching its repertoire based on preserved manuscripts. Then, Antoni Milwid’s life and art is presented in the light of accessible sources. Finally, Missa in Dis CZs Rps 5 from Czerwinsk’s collection is analysed in terms of its form, melody, rhythm, harmony and instrumentation, what allows the author to draw general conclusions concerning the compositional workshop of Antoni Milwid. 

Jan Antoni Wichrowski’s Compositions for Violin Solo and Violin with Piano. Overview

Jan Antoni Wichrowski (1942–2017) was a composer and professor of Karol Lipiński Music Academy in Wrocław. Among around 60 of his compositions representing almost all of music genres and forms, there are three for violin solo and two for violin and piano that the author of this paper was particularly interested in. In the article, Wichrowski’s pieces for violin solo and violin with piano are shown in the context of composer’s life, output and, lastly, general style. The aim of the article is to present a very interesting, yet not well known composer’s music to the broader audience.

The London Episode of Apolinary Kątski (1838)

The early artistic career of Apolinary Kątski (1824–1879) was that of an infant prodigy – one of the Wunderkinder who (especially in the 19th century) dazzled audiences with their exceptionally well-developed abilities. The Polish virtuoso, unlike many prodigies, did not disappoint the hopes placed in him, going down in history as a distinguished  violinist, as well as the founder and longtime director of the Institute of Music in Warsaw. In the author’s opinion, the violinist’s early career requires more thorough discussion. The present article outlines the fortunes of the young  Apolinary Kątski in the second half of 1838 – so, directly after his meeting with Niccolò Paganini. This event represented a certain turning point in the development of Kątski’s career. The letter – a peculiar sort of recommendation – drawn up by the Italian virtuoso to rate the young violinist’s playing opened the doors for him to many of Europe’s concert halls and had a favourable effect on his later artistic career. Kątski had the opportunity to see for himself the power of Paganini’s words during his first trip to London, the primary aim of which was to perform before the British Queen, Victoria. The present article describes Kątski’s activities in preparation for this event. It takes up the thread of the reception of the young Kątski’s first performances in the capital of England, as well as his reception by the Polish community resident in London. Beyond this, it discusses the relationship of the Kątski family with journalist and émigré activist Leonard Niedźwiecki, who served as their guide in the salons of the city upon the Thames.
Studies of the correspondence of Leonard Niedźwiecki (with, among others, Eustachy Januszkiewicz, who was active in the Polish émigré community in Paris), as well as preliminary research of the foreign press, have permitted us to recreate Apolinary Kątski’s experiences during his first independent artistic journey to London.

The Musical Language of Eugeniusz Morawski as Exemplified by the Ballets Miłość and Świtezianka

Two of Morawski’s preserved complete ballet scores – Miłość (Love) and Świtezianka (The Maid of Lake Świteź), are representing a relatively late stage of his career as a composer, especially compared to his preserved symphonic poems (Don Quichotte, Nevermore and Ulalume). Miłość was written between 1925 and 1928. Libretto was written by the painter, theatre critic and scenic designer Franciszek Siedlecki. It is Morawski’s longest preserved composition – its estimated duration is about 3 hours. It is a score for a large orchestra supported by organ and choir. The work is divided according to the 19th-century ballet-divertissement. It is set in four parts, representing different locations (the world of machines, the sphere of the planets, the world of eternal love and Earth), and each part is divided into scenes and further dance numbers. Miłość was never presented on stage, but some portions of the work were shown at concerts. Świtezianka was written ca 1922. It is a much shorter work – its duration is about 35 minutes. Libretto was written by the composer himself. The plot of the ballet is a love triangle between a girl, a lumberjack and a knight. It is to represent a fantastic vision of pagan Slavic world in which reality and supernatural are mixed together. Świtezianka was staged in 1931 in Warsaw and was the biggest success in Morawski’s career, bringing him the State Prize for Musical Achievements in 1933. Since then it was staged three times – in 1960, 1962 and 2017, each time bringing reviews full of admiration and respect. Both ballets show Morawski as a composer fully aware of the 20th-century trends and techniques. His musical language in these works resembles Bartók, Ravel, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. They are masterly orchestrated with acute sense of orchestral timbre and with extensive use of percussion and brass sections. Morawski uses polytonality and polymetrics, underlines sharp rhythms and uses scales unfamiliar to traditional tonal system – pentatonic scale, whole tone scale and modal scale. These traits show Morawski as one of the most interesting and unjustly neglected Polish composers of the first half of the 20th century.

The Ideas of Determinism and Indeterminism in Works of Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti on an Example of Pithoprakta and Clocks and Clouds

The issue of determinism and indeterminism became essential in the music of the second half of the 20th century. It occupied a special place in artistic output of two avant-garde composers: Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti. In both cases, the ideas of determinism and indeterminism are connected with their music: with Pithoprakta (written by Xenakis in 1955–1956) and with Clocks and Clouds (written by Ligeti in 1972). The following article presents some aspects of their artistic approach as well as an analysis and interpretation of the compositions. Xenakis proposed his own way of thinking about indeterminism in music linked to the “stochastic music”, and Pithoprakta is the first example of this compositional technique. Meanwhile, Ligeti’s main inspiration when composing Clocks and Clouds was the essay Of Clouds and Clocks written in 1965 by Karl Popper and published in 1972 (in his book Objective Knowledge). The Austrian-British philosopher used this metaphor to describe different physical phenomena which are  more or less predictable. Pithoprakta as well as Clocks and Clouds represent specific kind of music called “sound-mass music”. In both of them some distinctive textural and timbral structures may be pointed out: in the first work, they can be described as figures (“galaxy” and “beam”), and in the second one – as bands (“clocks” and “clouds”).

Samuel Besler (1574–1625): The Introduction to Life and Art

Samuel Besler (1574–1625) was born in Brzeg, Lower Silesia. He spent a major part of his life in Wrocław as a cantor at St Bernardine’s Church and then a headmaster of the Holy Spirit school, which belonged to St. Bernardine’s parish. The article presents a biography of the composer including the latest discoveries of the author, made in Wrocław University Library and the State Archive in Wrocław. Biographical information is followed by the short description of Besler’s artistic work in which both symptoms of changes in the music of the early 17th century and manifestation of the composer’s fascination with Gregorian chant are present.

Commander in Opera: Contexts

The aim of this article is to analyse the presence of Commander in Mozart’s Don Giovanni as well as show the references to other opera depictions regarding the myth of Don Juan. Commander, also known as the Stone Guest, is an animate tombstone figure, which appears in every classic-based version of the story about Don Juan Tenorio (Don Giovanni) in order to summon a rogue to conversion; when he fails to do so, he drags the rogue to hell. The spectacular character of the final scene turned out to serve as an inspiration for numerous opera makers, from Mozart to Rimsky-Korsakov (Mozart and Salieri). This theme, which has not been the subject of research before, is definitely worth exploring.

The Musical Rhetoric of the Baroque on the Example of Johannes Brahms’ Psalm XIII Op. 27

The musical style of Johannes Brahms has long been known as influenced by music of the earlier epochs. Its references to techniques, forms and genres of the Renaissance and Baroque music and the elaborate use of the counterpoint were frequently analysed by musicologists. Less often, however, the potential relationship between word and music shaped by the rhetoric in the Baroque music was studied, something which was somewhat forgotten in the Romanticism. Brahms’ fascination with the past, which led the composer to study the 18th-century musical literature and treatises, enabled him to recognise many interesting aspects of the Baroque music. Like Bach and his contemporaries, Brahms used rhetorical figures in his early sacred works, e.g. Psalm XIII Op. 27.

“Cleverly Devised, Postmodern Toy”: Paweł Mykietyn’s Music in the Category of Postmodernism and Constructivism on the Example of III Symphony for Alto and Orchestra

Works of Paweł Mykietyn belong to the most characteristic trends of Polish contemporary music. His compositional attitude was individualised in the first decade of the 21st century, and today he is recognised as one of the most original Polish composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Andrzej Chłopecki, when characterizing Mykietyn’s music after the premiere of the composer’s II Symphony, compared this work to a “cleverly devised, postmodern toy”. Also Mykietyn’s next, III Symphony (2011), can be considered in the context of the categories of postmodernism and constructivism. This work manifests the postmodern attitude, but it is also marked by strict, “cleverly devised”, constructivist thinking. Its musical language contains intertextual references to hip-hop and rap music; on the other hand, it includes such typical for Mykietyn measures as “(de)gradation form”, “accelerando form”, “permanent accelerando” and dodecaphony, which can be found while analysing the work. III Symphony can be also interpreter in relation to techniques of deconstruction, including both concept and structure of the composition.

Music in the Political Marketing on the Example of Polish Presidential Campaigns (1995–2015)

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between music and politics on the example of Polish presidential campaigns (1995–2015). The first part will show a current state of research signalised by many researchers from different scientific disciplines: from musicologists to political scientists and sociologists, as well as explain the topicality of the described problem. The next part will introduce a short overview of ways of using music with political aims, mentioned, for example, by Iwona Massaka in her dissertation Music as an Instrument of Political Impact. In this context, the author will characterise the most distinctive form of existence of music in a so-called “election song” – also in relation to Adorno’s theory of popular music. The conclusion is that the most important role in presidential campaigns is played by popular music, especially in a form of song. In that case, music tends to advertise political candidates in a way, as it can emphasize their intended image and influence a growth of suport for a politician in a campaign.

This article explores the newly discovered account books of the Lviv Uniate Musical Chapel of the Bishop Leon Szeptycki. The main stay of this musical chapel was the architectural complex of the Cathedral of St George in Lviv. Today, two account books are stored in the department of old books and manuscripts of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv in the archives of the Lviv bishops; they cover the years 1760–1779. In the first two parts of the article, the author investigates the issues of the founding of the musical chapel and its place of activity. In the third part, there is a list of musicians who were members of this chapel over the years. In addition to the names and surnames, their positions, years of employment, musical instruments which they played and details of their biography are indicated. In the next part, there is a list of pupils of the chapel. It appears that the total number of pupils ranged from 2 to 14. Adult musicians and pupils played various instruments: harpsichord (“klawicymbaly”), clavichord (“klawikort”), organ, violin, alto, viola da gamba (“kwartviola”), cello (“basetla”), oboe, bassoon, trumpet and horn; there were singers as well. In the fifth part, the author specifies in what way the Lviv Uniate musical chapel was financed. In the next part, both the church and the secular musical repertoire of the musical chapel are described. In 6 this section, also information from the Warsaw periodicals are used. In the seventh part, the collaboration of the Uniate music chapel with other chapels and monastic orders, Jesuits, Dominicans and Conventual Franciscans is explored. In the last part, the author examines the information about the human settlements that are found on the pages of the account books.

Bruno Stein’s organ music in the context of pedagogical and musical activity

The purpose of this article is to present the life and organ work of Bruno Stein. The preparation for teaching was very important in Prussia, as it somehow traced a path of development for young people not only willing to be teachers but also musicians in the future. Bruno Stein, when composing organ preludes, recognised this situation and simultaneously became a model teacher as well as a composer of reliable and solid artistic achievements. The crucial element constituting the core of this article is the analysis of the selected preludes for organ. Having taken these compositions into account, one can observe the artistic means that were used by the composer, explore their style and purpose. Apart from organ works, Bruno Stein composed many other vocal, instrumental and vocal-instrumental pieces.

Alois Hába’s Microtonal Systems and Their Practical Use in Selected String Quartets

Alois Hába (1893–1973) was one of the most important composers developing the microtonal music in the early 20th century. The list of his works contains many pieces that were composed in quarter-, 1/5- and 1/6-tone systems. In 1927 he published the book titled Neue Harmonielehre, in which he described the innovative harmonic systems using 1/3, 1/4, 1/6 and 1/12 part of tone.

The article briefly presents Hába’s life and work and focuses on the composer’s harmonic ideas from Neue Harmonielehre. The theory of microtonality is confronted with the compositional technique through the analysis of four Hába’s string quartets: 2nd Op. 7, 11th Op. 87, 14th Op. 94 and 16th Op. 98. The analysis focuses on the aspects of microtonality: notation, vertical and horizontal us of new microtonal intervals and texture.

“Life-writing” in Aleksander Nowak's operas: Sudden Rain and Space Opera

“Life-writing”, manifesting itself in the extremely personal character of the composition, is one of the most important features of Aleksander Nowak's work, which clearly distinguish him from other composers. “Life-writing” conceals such creative inspirations as the methods and means of composing. Nowak very often draws topics or sound material of the composition from his own life experiences. At the same time, he hopes to achieve a certain type of energy or emotions, which will then to evoke the feelings that are similar to those accompanying the writing of the piece. The issue of conveying in the work any or more specific, though significant, emotions is therefore a first-rate issue. For this reason, in his works the musical tradition is often combined with the popular and well-known music. A specific representation of the idea of “life-writing” are Nowak's operas: Sudden Rain for soprano, baritone, mixed choir and chamber orchestra and two-act Space Opera for soprano, mezzo-soprano, countertenor, baritone, bass, mixed choir and symphonic orchestra.

Reflection on the lyrics of the sung poetry in its vocal-instrumental layer on the example of selected Pod Budą’s works

The subject of this article is the analysis of the selected songs – classified as ballads – of the band Pod Budą from Kraków, which purpose is to prove the thesis that the most important song codes in sung poetry are located in lyrics. This thesis is argued by the fact that vocal-instrumental parts of the work underline the importance of lyrics through suitably shaped components of a musical work. Lyrics in sung poetry emphasize therefore: agogic and melodic accents when singing in both high and low volume, and in the instrumental part, apart from the specific dynamics, also tempo. Certain musical technique also helps to trigger the imagination of the recipient as, while listening to the song, the audience can see what the vocalist sings about, that is the space and the situations in which a character of the song is located.

Functions of Scordatura on the Example of Selected Compositions from the Collection of St Anne’s Church on Piasek Island in Wrocław’s Chapel (1679–1686)

Scordatura is a tuning of a string instrument, which is different than the standard one. It has been used for both plucked and string instruments since the 16th century and it was quite popular in the Baroque era, espe­cially in the case of violins. Because of their specific tuning – based on the same intervals – it is possible to distinguish two types of violin scordatura. The first one relates to the situation when all strings are tuned up or down in the same interval relations. Such tuning is still based on fifths, but the pitches are different than using standard tuning, so it is called transpose scordatura. In the second one, each string is tuned up or down in differ­ent interval relation, in another direction or even only some of them are tuned in the unusual way. In this case, violin tuning is based on different intervals than fifths, usually on thirds and/or fourths, although sometimes there are three dissimilar intervals (thirds, fourths and fifths). The second type of scordatura was a very popular technique in the Baroque era and its functions were variable. The main of them were allowing to perform figures, which are impossible in standard tuning, especially double-notes and chords (technical aspect), and changing sound qualities of the instru­ment (sound aspect). It does not mean that scordatura was used only to achieve these goals. For example, it was sometimes used to imitate other instrument. There are certain examples of such a usage of this playing technique in the oldest (1679–1686) part of the collection of manuscripts connected with activity of Canonesses Regular of St Augustine in Wrocław (provenance St Anna in Arena). The scordatura can be found there in seven manuscripts, and in four of them it is possible that composers (or com­poser?) tried to assimilate the violin sound and/or technique with other instruments, such as viola, lute or trumpet.

Joseph Woelfl – Life and Artistic Activity

The present article constitutes an introduction to the artistic profile of Austrian composer and piano virtuoso Joseph Woelfl. This forgotten creative personality left an artistic legacy of instrumental music, stage works, numerous orchestral compositions, piano concertos, a concerto for piano and violin, and a chamber concerto. Beyond this, he wrote numerous other chamber works scored for various ensembles; but above all, he created an array of works for solo piano or two pianos, as well as piano pieces of pedagogical character.

The artist was born on 24 December 1773 in Salzburg, where he began his musical education. In 1790, he left his hometown of Salzburg and, probably following in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s footsteps, set out for Vienna. He did not remain there long, however, because in 1791, he was accepted for service to Prince Michał Kleofas Ogiński in Warsaw. The pianist-composer returned to Vienna probably ca 1795. He set out on his next conquest of European cities in 1799. This period of tours lasted until 1801. At this time he visited, among other cities, Prague, Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden. In 1801, he arrived in Paris, where he spent the next four years of his life. In 1805, he left the French capital and set out for London, where he remained until his death. He passed away on 21 May 1812.

In his intensive artistic career, Joseph Woelfl devoted himself mainly to piano performance and composition; beyond this, he also engaged in ped­agogical activity. His abundant artistic output is nearly forgotten today, so it is worthwhile to remind a broader audience of this distinguished figure.

Introduction to Life and Output of Johann Baptist Schiedermayr

Although nowadays the output of Johann Baptist Schiedermayr is almost completely forgotten, in the 19th century the composer was widely recognized as an author of both sacred and secular music. His compositions were performed mostly in Central Europe, but it should be underlined that the preserved manuscripts display an impressive area in which he must have been known. There are thousands preserved sources that confirm his popularity in the past; therefore, it is disturbing as well as intriguing that Schiedermayr is usually overlooked by scholars investigating music of the early 19th century. In my paper, I present life of the composer, in­cluding existing literature that concerns this topic, and I make an attempt to reconstruct his output as hitherto no one have done it. It appears that Johann Baptist Schiedermayr was well-educated and played a crucial role in the musical life of Linz at his time. Besides his achievements as a musi­cian, conductor and teacher, he composed a vast variety of musical pieces, although he focused mostly on church music. Based on the studies done so far, we can assume that he created hundreds of compositions presenting his excellent compositional technique as well as musicality; many of them were also printed. Nevertheless, further research is absolutely necessary in order to broaden knowledge of this brilliant persona and his oeuvre.

Conflict and Dialectic of Faiths in Felix Mendelssohn’s Responsorium et Hymnus

This essay aims at discussing the problem of Felix Mendelssohn’s atti­tude towards different religions shown in his choral piece Responsorium et Hymnus Op. 121 for male choir with cello and double bass. Considering the arguments concerning composer’s self-identity provided by Jeffrey Sposato, we could interpret the Lutheran chorale appearing at the end of this Catholic liturgical work as means by which Mendelssohn tried to manifest his Lutheran faith and therefore to criticize Catholicism.

However, if we examine more carefully the very end of this composi­tion, we would find that the musical material, characteristic for each faith, form a dialectical and dynamic relation. It seems that – instead of criticizing Catholicism – Felix showed the possibility and the necessity of different faiths to coexist, which, according to the idea of religious pluralism andtolerance proposed by composer’s grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, is the only way to discover religious truth. At the end of this paper, I would like to propose that the reception history of Felix Mendelssohn’s work and life from the post-Wagnerian and anti-semitic criticism to so-called Mendelssohn Renaissance in the second half of 20th century also went through a dialectic course. We cannot fully understand and interpret them without taking a multi-aspect view.

Difference and Repetition As the Aspects of Representation in Arnold Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra Op. 31

The article focuses on the issues of difference and repetition, as defined by Gilles Deleuze, and their possible application to Arnold Schoenberg’s dode­caphonic work, Variations for Orchestra Op. 31. Although Schoenberg’s re­flection on these problems comes from the earlier years than Deleuze’s, the correspondence of understanding the difference and repetition between them is striking. Two other terms by Deleuze and Guattari applied to the work are becoming and refrain. Repetition and refrain are associated with the representational moment in the work (motif B-A-C-H as a quote and as a type of refrain) while difference and becoming are associated with the anti-representational moment (dodecaphonic technique, developing variation technique, etc.).

Phonographic Realisations of the Gothic Symphony by Havergal Brian

Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1919–1927), known as Gothic Symphony, is possibly one of the most demanding and difficult pieces in symphonic repertoire, the largest-scale symphony ever written, outdo­ing the most extreme demands of Mahler, Strauss and Schönberg. After the purely instrumental part 1, part 2 is a gigantic setting of Te Deum, inspired by the mighty Gothic cathedrals. This outstanding work has been performed only six times since its premiere in 1961, and has been recorded in studio only once. There are three existing phonographic realisations of this work. Two of them are live recordings made in England. The first of them comes from 1966, when the Symphony was recorded under the direction of Adrian Boult (it was released by the Testament label under catalogue number SBT2 1454) and the second one was made in 2011 under the baton of Martyn Brabbins (it was released in the same year under cata­logue number CDA67971/2). The third recording, but the first one that has been available internationally, was made in Bratislava in 1989 under Ondrej Lenárd (it was first released by Marco Polo label in 1990, and later pub­lished by Naxos in 2004 under catalogue number 8.557418-19). Made with different orchestras and choirs, under very different sonic circumstances, they also differ considerably within interpretative ideas represented by conductors. They show Brian’s work in different ways, illuminating this composition. Sadly, despite their efforts, the composer’s output is still perceived as peripheral curiosity for connoisseurs. 

Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska for Children

In the second half of the twentieth century, music for children was en­riched by the works of Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska (1912–1994). The Wrocław’s pianist, composer and pedagogue wrote most of her pieces for the youngest and thus the most sensitive recipient. The vast majority of her works is stage music for children, mainly ballet. In this category, Szajna-Lewandowska has no equal. She is the one of the rare composers who devoted most of their works to children. Her music for the youngest comprises not only stage works, but also compositions written for children as performers or listeners. Among them, there are instrumental, vocal--instrumental and choral pieces. Therefore, it can be claimed that Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska is a composer who made a significant contribution to Polish children’s and young adult literature.

The History of the Organs in the Cistercian Abbey in Kraków-Mogiła

The history of the organs in the Cistercian Abbey in Kraków-Mogiła has not been studied so far. The article elabo-rates this topic based on the results of an archival query. Most of the sources used are preserved in the Cistercian Archive in Mogiła. Examining them, the author discusses the history of instruments in the monastic church and in the former St Bartholomew church. On the basis of the sources, it was stated that at least in the 18th century the monastery church was equipped with two pipe organs. This fact has not been pointed out so far by researchers. The following article is supplemented by archival photographs.

Canto fratto Repertoire of Benedicamus Domino in the Manuscript Cantionales from the Convent of Bernardine Nuns in Kraków

The Archive of St Joseph’s Convent in Kraków contains a collection of musical manuscripts, which have not been studied before. Among books of liturgical use, such as graduals and antiphonaries, there are also small cantionals, full of canto fratto repertoire. The majority of these sources originate from the Convent of Bernardine Nuns in Kraków; however, there are also at least two manuscripts from the Convent in Wilno. The aim of this paper is to present canto fratto repertoire of Benedicamus Domino found in the 18th and 19th century liturgical manuscripts from the Convent of Bernardine Nuns in Kraków. The author indicates sources of studied melodies based on the wide range of liturgical manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries – especially from convents of Bernardine Nuns in Poland, as well as from the Convent of Benedictine Friars in Staniątki – and compares it to the dispersal of canto fratto settings of ordinarium missae. Finally, the paper presents complete index of Benedicamus Domino melodies in the annex.

Apolinary Kątski as an Infant Prodigy

Infant prodigies were a common phenomenon in the 19th century. They astonished the audience not only through their impressive abilities, but also the innocent beauty and the youthful grace. The perfect example of this is Apolinary Kątski (1826–1879), a violin virtuoso and a composer, known mainly as the founder of the Institute of Music in Warsaw, who, since he was three, was recognizable in concert halls all over Europe.
According to the author, the early stage of the violinist’s activity requires more attention. The presented article sketches the path of young Apolinary’s life from the moment of his first performance in 1829 to May 1838, when he was granted with the famous recommendation of Niccolò Paganini. It introduced him to numerous concert halls of Europe and positively influenced his further artistic activity. The hereby presented paper makes an attempt to find out the date and place of birth of Kątski in the context of the rich musical activity of his family members. It also shows the first artistic tours of the young virtuoso against the background of his artisti-cally talented siblings: a violinist Karol, pianists Stanisław and Antoni, and a singer Eugenia. The crucial mo-ment are reflections on the stay of the family in Paris and their first performances in the musical centre of Eu-rope as well as contacts of the young violinist with Niccolò Paganini.
The studies on the correspondence of the father of the virtuoso, Grzegorz Kątski, and research on the foreign newspapers let the author reconstruct the life of Apolinary Kątski in the very first stage of his musical activity and place him in the context of infant prodigies of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Chopin on Barricades: About the 100th Anniversary of Chopin’s Birth (1949) and Socialist Realism Doctrine in Poland

The main aim of this paper is to examine the discourse on Frédéric Chopin that took place in Poland in 1949, when the 100th anniversary of his birth coincided with the culmination of the socialist realist propaganda in the field of Polish culture. The discourse, initiated and moderated under effective surveillance of the Polish People’s Republic’s government, was filled with communist ideology. The authorities aimed at creating a sense of com-munion in the Polish nation, therefore they undertook numerous actions in the area of cultivating memory of Chopin and reception of his works. The composer was used as a banner under which culture of socialist realism was to be consolidated. Chopin was presented by the narrators in the socialist realist context in various dimen-sions. “Deep humanism”, “truth”, “optimism”, “sincerity” and “democratic features” of Chopin’s music were the crucial notions used by them. Chopin was depicted, among others, as a revolutionist and a prophet of tri-umph of communism. The oeuvre of Chopin was said to bring together “fraternal countries and nations”, Polish People’s Republic and Soviet Union, while being simultaneously a crucial element of class conflict. The authori-ties had a tendency to overemphasize folk roots of his compositions, thus among musical genres composed by Chopin the importance of Mazurka was exaggerated. Other genres without such strong folk connotations, as sonatas, ballades and scherzos, were marginalized in the discourse. 

Piotr Hertel as a Composer of Cartoons Soundtracks

Piotr Hertel (1936–2010) – a composer of film, theatrical and stage music (among others the hit Parasolka to words of Janusz Słowikowski). He is the author of music for numerous cartoons made in the animation studio Se-Ma-For in Łódź, including soundtracks for legendary TV series Miś Uszatek and Plastusiowy pamiętnik. The aim of the article is to characterize music composed by Hertel for the above-mentioned as well as several other movies in the context of his views on the role of music in cartoons and his compositional technique. The broader knowledge on this topic was gained thanks to the interview made with the members of Hertel’s family: his wife Jadwiga and son Michał. 

Virtual Harp of Bach. Baroque.me by Alexander Chen between Net Art and Myth of the Great Composer

In his projects, Alexander Chen (b. 1981) unites experiences as a programmer, designer, violist and indie rock musician. His Baroque.me is a virtual, audiovisual interpretation of canonical Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 BWV 1007 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Like most of Chen’s projects, it is based on the code which he wrote in 2011. The fruit of the code is – in his own words – “a virtual string instrument”, “an interactive plucked instru-ment” or “an impossible harp” that is out of classification in terms of traditional typology of musical instru-ments. Grounded in mathematical fundamentals of musical string, it presents them in an attractive manner and unveils hidden geometrical beauty of well-known items.
Baroque.me could seem to be too traditional, nostalgic and naive, lacking in deeply critical approach towards postmodern society and deeply attached to premodern understanding of beauty. Its user-friendly interface, ap-pearance typical for contemporary websites and elements of gaming suggest that Chen’s work is made just for entertainment. However, it is exquisitely interesting as an example of contemporary phenomenon, which Paul Elie called “reinventing Bach”. Baroque.me merges various layers of Bach reception: romantic, modern, and finally postmodern, which connects intimacy, entertainment and – characteristic for Bach himself – fascination of science and new technology. Two possible modes of contact with the Chen’s work, that is passive contempla-tion of the old masterpiece and/or (inter)active disruption of its harmony, can be associated with the ethos of the net artist who uses new technology to entertain people and provide intellectual reflection at the same time.

Since the middle of the 19th century, Franz Schubert’s song cycles Die schöne Mullerin and Winterreise are not only considered as an outstanding contribution to the Lied genre, but also as “romantic” compositions par excellence, whose protagonists might be depicted adequately only by performances of male singers. The “masculine nature” (Carl Lafite) of these thoughts, emotions and actions might be inappropriate for female singers. This attitude, which is still present today (even amongst professional musicians and musicologists), though, contradicts not only the performance practice of the early 19th century, but even Schubert’s handling of his songs. In fact, the idea of these two cycles as “men’s cycles” has only developed in the course of the 19th century, when various impacts such as the general upvaluation of the Lied genre, the transfiguration of the composer, the interpretation of his songs as being a personal statement, and the idea of Werktreueshaped the reception of Schubert’s compositions. These factors led to the consolidation of strong and still valid power structures, in which men are regarded as the norm, whereas women (and other alternative voice categories like countertenors) appear as deviation from this norm. These structures are tightly related to similar conditions and principles which have been outlined in the past decades by the masculinity studies on higher levels of our society. In this paper, I will set out this whole process by delineating the performance practice at Schubert’s time, his own attitude (insofar as it is possible), the various influences of romantic musical aesthetics, and the development of the mentioned performance tradition towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, a number of statements from the 21st century will demonstrate that these concepts are still common today, and I will correlate them with some certain principles pointed out by masculinity studies from the last decades.

Giovanni Battista Bassani—Reception of the Output and Characteristic of the Compositions Preserved in the Musical Collection of Grodzisk Parish Chapel

The work concerns Giovanni Battista Bassani’s output and its reception with a particular emphasis on manuscripts preserved in the collection from parish church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. The oeuvre of this composer has been preserved to a huge amount today—there are 441 manuscripts and 67 prints preserved in 287 copies.

The article consists of two parts. The first chapter presents a list of sources of the composer’s  works, created using the RISM database with special attention to the Polish sources. In addition, a list of sources identified as the transmission of Bassani’s output is presented. The second part of the article characterises the composer’s works preserved in the collection from parish church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski.

The Collection of Manuscripts of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s Symphonies from Sächsische Landes bibliothek—Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden

Dresden played no role in Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s life, but history made this city one of the most significant places regarding preserved sources of his works. In the Department of Special Collections (German: Sondersammlungen) of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek—Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek in Dresden (English: Saxon State and University Library Dresden, abbr.: SLUB), there are, among others, more than thirty archival sources containing Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s symphonies. That makes it the third richest collection of symphonic works by this composer. The majority of them comes from court’s theatre of Duke Frederick August Braunschweig-Oels in Oels (Öls, Polish: Oleśnica). It is one of the most representative collections of Dittersdorf’s symphonies from all known archives. There are several composer’s autographs, partial autographs, a large variety of works from all periods of his activity, and a few unique copies of symphonies as well. A minor body of Dittersdorf’s symphonies comes from two different sources, until recently unknown. One group is the set of partbooks (contemporary with Dittersdorf), including—apart from Dittersdorf’s works—several dozen movements of serenades, symphonies, string quartets etc. of G.B. Sammartini, J.G. Graun, J.Ph. Rameau, the Stamitz family and J. Haydn, apparently used in performances on the occasion of court activities, not in concerts. The second, from 1860s, is the set of scores, prepared by C. Mehner.

Arthur Honegger and His Relation to Jean Cocteau and Les Six

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between Arthur Honegger—a composer, and Jean Cocteau—a poet and playwright. They are often associated with the group under the patronage of Cocteau called Les Six, to which Honegger undoubtedly belonged. The poet gathered young composers around himself and became the initiator of artistic meetings and concerts. Most of them took place between 1917 and 1921. Cocteau wanted to show the path French music should follow. In accordance to that, his aesthetic manifesto Le Coq et l’Arlequinwas published in 1918.

In the first section, Honegger’s and Cocteau’s aesthetic views concerning music, its elements expression are presented and confronted. Next, the composer’s as well as poet’s work is presented by the example of their cooperation.

The analysis of mutual relations leads to the conclusion that, despite many different views, Honegger and Cocteau respected each other and were very kind. The composer significantly departed from the ideals of Cocteau and developed his own individual style resulting from a wide range of musical inspirations. Les Six was a short-lived group and Cocteau himself was gradually moving away from his controversial and radical views.

PaulHindemith and the Idea of Progress, Tradition and Neoclassicism

Paul Hindemith is one of the most famous composers of the 20th century as well as the most important thinkers in the field of music. His aesthetic beliefs are inspired mainly by Boethius and Saint Augustine. He raises an issue of ideas of tradition and progress, which seemed quite disputable in the music of the 20th century. Hindemith believes that in the world exist some universal spiritual principles, which must be integrated by composers in the process of creating music. He criticises the approaches in which the technique itself appears to be predominant, therefore he negates such techniques as the twelve-tone chromatic scale. According to Hindemith, the development of music must be based on traditional fundaments, which, however, can be linked to modern styles and ideas. That seems crucial not only in the process of composing, but also in teaching music, both in theory and in practice.

An Attempt to Reconstruct the Original Lyrics of the Concerto Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia by Franciszek Lilius

Franciszek Lilius was one of the most prominent composers of the 17th century Poland, a pedagogue and a choirmaster of Kraków’s Cathedral between 1630 and 1657. The majority of the sources containing his compositions was created after the composer’s death. Many of them are incomplete. Owing to these two facts, we do not know the original version of compositions mentioned by Lilius.

One of the examples is the concerto Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia preserved in Staatsbibliothek in Berlin as a German contrafactum with the text “Kompt lasst uns betrachten”. The composition may have been performed during servicesat the Protestant church of St. Mary Magdalene in Wrocław. The text probably was modified and adapted to Evangelical requirements in this place. However, originally the work must have been intended to be performed in the Catholic church during the feast of St. Nicholas (the 6th of December), as is suggested not only by its original name – Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia, but also by the pre-compositional material used in it. This material comprises, on the one hand, the one-voice hymn Nicolai solemnia preserved in e.g. the cantional of Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński from 1639 and the cantional of Literary Archconfraternity in Warsaw from 1668, and on the other hand – its four-voice setting preserved in the Sandomierz and Wawel sources.

If the copyist had not written original Latin title in his manuscript, we would not know what kind of Latin text was previously used by composer. Only this information made it possible to recreate original, missing catholic version of the concerto. The main issue of the article is an attempt to reconstruct the original lyrics of the concerto Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia and to analyze different problems connected with it.

Requiem Mass by Hieronim Feicht in the Context of His Mass Compositions and the Repertoire of the Stradomski Choir

The article focuses on the background of Hieronim Feicht’s Requiem, which was written during World War II. The main aspect of it is to present main thoughts on mass settings composed by Feicht and to give basic information about their performances given by the choir of theological seminary students of the Congregation of the Mission in Kraków-Stradom. Many of extant documents provide us with precise knowledge about the repertoire and solemnities during which it was sung. Except for performances, the article presents the praxis of performing requiem masses in the first half of the 20th century. Taking this context into consideration, the author presents a brief analysis of the Feicht’s requiem mass setting.

Musical Interpretation of the Selected Poems by Paul Verlaine. Analysis of Irena Wieniawska’s Songs in the Comparison to the Compositions by Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel

The aim of this article is to interpret songs by Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and a less-known composer – Irena Wieniawska (1879−1932), based on the same poems by Paul Verlaine. In the first part of this paper, the relationships between Wieniawska, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel and Verlaine are subsequently described. Then, the author makes a comparison between selected songs by French composers and Madame Poldowski, indicating main similarities and differences. The final part consists of some remarks related to the fact that Wieniawska fulfills features of the French mélodie very strictly. This is why her songs seem to be more traditional, not as allusive and sophisticated as Debussy’s or Ravel’s vocal works.

The 8th Sonnet by William Shakespeare in Songs of Kabalevsky, Stravinsky and Mykietyn

The 8th Sonnet Music to hear by William Shakespeare belongs to so-called “procreation sonnets”, where the poet insists on a young man to marry and have children. It should grant immortality to him and his youthful beauty to the world. The poem, written in iambic pentameter, reveals the structure of an Elizabethan sonnet. The main emphasis is laid on the last stanza which does not serve anymore as a protective advice, but as a warning. The syndrome of the 8th Sonnet, understood after Mieczysław Tomaszewski as a “group of constitutive features” is formed here by the following categories: musicality, metaphorism, oxymoronity, rhetoric and erotic ambivalence. The poem has found its musical interpretations in the output of the 20th century composers: Dmitry Kabalevsky, Igor Stravinsky and Paweł Mykietyn. All songs are both musically and expressively distant from each other, nevertheless each of them reflects an element of the Sonnet’s character. Metaphorism and oxymoronity appear in music of every composer in a very individualized way, which is proved by the analysis of relations between text and music. The sphere of erotic ambivalence is present only in Mykietyn’s song, intended for a male soprano. In a lyrical song by Kabalevsky the musicality and rhetoric of the poem are especially underlined. In a constructivist approach of Stravinsky (dodecaphony) and Mykietyn (circle canon) analogies to an intellectual game and a net of complex literary metaphors in the poem can be found.

(tłum. Iwona Sowińska-Fruhtrunk)

Pierre Schaeffer’s Attempt to Create a Method of Electro-acoustic Music Analysis

Since the middle of the 20th century, electro-acoustic music has become very important in the contemporary music landscape. Electronic elements have forced researchers focused on electro-acoustic music to develop analytical methods. Pierre Schaeffer was a pioneer in systematization of new sounds. His achievements in this area are fundamental, serving nowadays as a reference point for dynamically developing new concepts of electro-acoustic music analysis.

The popularization of Pierre Schaeffer’s method in Poland began with Włodzimierz Kotoński who partially translated Traité des objets musicaux into Polish. In his Traité, Pierre Schaeffer coined one of the most important terms, i.e. a sound object, which is a unit of electro-acoustic music. A sound object is related to reduced listening and is purely perception-oriented. By using a sound object in the context of music, the composer creates a music object.

Schaeffer’s goal in creating an analytical method was to design a new language which could be used in a discussion of “non-classical” sounds. In 1966 Schaeffer introduced his PROGREMU Programme de la Recherche Musicale, which covers the following five stages of musical research: typology, morphology, characterology, analysis, synthesis. In typology and morphology sound objects are isolated from the context, then classified and described – it is a detailed stage of unit systematization. In the next step, sounds are grouped in genres according to their character. Sound objects are analyzed and specified in their musical context. With this information, the composer can make a new musical object. Each stage has its specific function; however, musical composition maintains its primary role. Schaeffer’s method is dynamic in character and it is constantly developed because of new sounds.

The role of Jane Wilhelmina Stirling in Fryderyk Chopin’s life as well as in preserving his legacy is nowadays underestimated. Jane Stirling was not only Chopin’s pupil, but also his patron. She organized a concert tour to England and Scotland for him and tried to support the composer financially. Moreover, she defrayed the costs of the composer’s funeral and erecting his gravestone. After his death, she focused on what Chopin had left passing away. It is thought that she purchased most of the items from his last apartment; she acquired also the last piano the composer had played. She tried to protect the autograph manuscripts he had left, and attempted to arrange the publication of compositions that had been retained only in a sketch form.

The aim of the article is to bridge the gap in the study of Nicolaus de Radom’s output by presenting a comparative analysis of his works as juxtaposed with other European artists. The prevailing opinion of musicologists, such as Maria Szczepańska and Mirosław Perz, is that Nicolaus de Radom’s music is closely related to the works of northern Italian composers. However, such a claim has not yet been supported with the detailed comparative analysis. The article presents the analysis of the manuscripts Kras 52 and Wn 378, signed by Nicolaus de Radom, confronted with selected masses by Johannes Ciconia and Antonio Zacara da Teramo. A detailed analysis of a two-sectioned cyclic mass helps to distinguish certain similarities and differences in the unification of the Mass pairs, as they are exemplified in the music of the composers. The works of all of the three artists manifest secular songs’ influence on the shaping of the Mass as a genre, although each composer adapts it in a slightly different way. Moreover, it is stated that a thorough analysis of the 15th-century Masses is necessary to determine whether there are any links between Nicolaus de Radom’s, Antonio Zacara da Teramo’s and Johannes Ciconia’s works, and whether there are any similarities in their compositional technique. Presented analysis of de Radom’s, Zacara da Teramo’s and Ciconia’s Masses refutes the claim that Nicolaus de Radom’s output bears closest relation to those of Zacara da Teramo’s. The results of the study reveal that there are no straightforward examples which would support such a theory.

The article is a pioneer attempt in Polish literature to develop a synthetic resume and the characteristics of the work of the Italian Baroque composer Leone Leoni. Leoni was highly valued in his time; also, he is said to be one of the creators of dramma per musica genre, and his religious compositions served as model examples of counterpoint for many centuries. The first part of the text presents the state of research concerning the life and work of the artist; then, the second part contains his biography. The last part discusses Leoni’s works. Finally, the rank of his output is regarded.

Two sides of the olympic medal – the controversy surrounding II Sinfonia Olimpica(1948) by Zbigniew Turski. Contribution to the analysis

The main topic of the article is II Sinfonia Olimpicaby Zbigniew Turski, a composer who is barely known in Poland nowadays. The reason of this is the socio-political situation of the country after World War II. The composer was one of first victims of Stalinist cultural policy. At a conference in Łagów Lubuski in 1949, his II Sinfonia Olimpicawas named formalistic, pessimistic and incompatible with the socialist realism standards. However, the composition had won a gold medal at the XIV Olympic Games in London in 1948 and this success had had a great resonance in Polish music press before the conference.

The article has several objectives. The first of them is to present socio-political situation in musical environment. Moreover, it shows the reception of the symphony after its premiere at the conference in Łagów Lubuski. Finally, an attempt to analyze the II Sinfonia Olimpicais made.

It is noticed that the symphony stands out against other compositions created in the mid-twentieth century particularly by dint of its deeply emotional and dramatic character. The achieved mood results from traumatic war experience of the composer. Although the neoclassical tradition is visible, Turski used the innovative musical language and his attempt to create his own music style is noticeable. According to the author’s opinion, if it had not been socialist realism in the mid-twentieth century, II Sinfonia Olimpicacould be now perceived as one of the most important symphonies created within the last century in Poland.

As many researchers claim, we live in the era of intertextual works. The analysis of the 3rd Symphony “Circus Maximus” by the American composer John Corigliano definitely proves this statement. The symphony, finished in 2004, had been commissioned by Jerry Junkin – the conductor of the Wind Ensemble and Director of Bands at UT Austin. It is said to be an example of program music. Corigliano’s main purpose was to show connections between the past (Rome Empire) and the contemporary world. The composer notices that animalisation and coerciveness are characteristics of people living in these two eras. The composition consists of eight movements and is written for wind ensemble and percussion. The aim of this article is to show intertextual connotations and references present in the composition, such as: allusions, stylization, reminiscences, and memory of genre. In order to achieve this aim, the author used the Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s systematics of music-in-music existence. Moreover, similarities to Gustav Mahler and Charles Ives’ compositions are shown.

The Julio Estrada’s output is still the unexplored area, what creates the opportunity to study the phenomenon called discontinuum-continuum. During the last 36 years of the creative activity, Estrada has developed several aspects of the macro timbre that integrate several compounds of a composition. In his research, Estrada confronts two different situations in the compositional process: continuous transformation of the sound and chronographical method, using strictly defined recording process in order to receive three-dimensional movements of the sound in the topological order. As a result of existing these two situations, a musical work is impossible to be defined by one technique or musical style. Examination of the theory of composition called discontinuum-continuum allows one to understand a new methodology of musical creation that involves scientific research of the physical phenomenon of sound and introspection of the imagination of the sound.

Musical sources survived in the Collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

The article presents the conclusion of the research conducted by the author in the collection of the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The sources are fully featured and described for the first time. The article focuses on showing a complicated post-war history of the camp items connected with music (musical instruments, printings, manuscripts, handwritten copies of instrumental books), which are auxiliary sources to reconstruct the repertoire of chapels in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The main aim of the article is to also discuss the preserved repertoire. In the last chapter, the author presents a short characteristics of original works composed by musicians and composers in slavery with a short analysis of all of them. Presented musical printings are a reflection of tastes of the German public in the 1930s as well as an example of ridiculous anthropological establishments of Nazi music scientists and no ability to implement it on listeners practice. In addition, the work contains annexes: musical instruments, original works composed during camp existence, and musical printings – a list of music materials which survived in the collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Western and Oriental vocal performing tradition: the aesthetic aspect

undamental differences between Kyiv-Pechersk choral style and Western model of performance of religious chants can be considered in various contexts and at several levels. One should take into account diversity of church rules (canon), mentality, even geographical location and physiological capabilities of voices of the singers coming from a particular area. The performance practice is also connected with such factors as cultural traditions, language, way of life and social issues related to faith. It is therefore understandable that, after a short period of a fragile cultural unity of the Church, different traditions emerged. The author argues that the way of singing is directly dependent on the fundamental philosophical and theological ideas, originating from the Church canon. Then, the differences between chant performance in two main branches of the Christian Church seem to be a consequence of the distinct ways in which the theological doctrine, dogma of the Church, the temporal and spatial principles of worship and art developed in Roman Catholic and Byzantine Orthodox traditions. The two different perceptions of communication with God and its influence on church singing are considered by the author as an exemplary case.

Personification of virtues in liturgical drama Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard of Bingen and on the Romanesque columns of the St. Trinity Church in Strzelno

Composed by Hildegard of Bingen in the Rhine-Hessen region in the middle of the 12th century, the liturgical drama Ordo Virtutum depicts a symbolic internal struggle for the fate of the soul between the virtues and the devil and is originally transposed into the language of low-relief found in the church owned by the Canonesses Nuns convent in Strzelno, a little town situated on the border of Kujawy and Wielkopolska regions in Poland. The aim of this article is to present how two visions of the same concept complement each other in an intriguing way, although they are expressed by two separate, yet merging languages of music linked with the text and low relief.

Most of the musical and literary personifications of both Ordo Virtutum and low reliefs featuring figures in Strzelno are still comprehensible,despite being created eight centuries ago. They introduce the audienceto the world of medieval sermons, theological treatises, lectureson ethics and moral theology. Both works show a holistic vision of theworld, held by people of the medieval era. In that vision what is spiritual,mystical and elusive for the outward physical senses intertwines andis closely linked with what is tangible, material and directly perceptible.Hildegard’s music praised not only the works of God but also the virtuesas deeply human attributes, linked with effort and choices of a freehuman being, capable of establishing a relationship with God. The columnof virtues in Strzelno introduces to the sacred sphere a multitudeof figures that become an icon of widely accessible perfection. It seemsthat both artists aimed at educating their audience as beauty was supposedto ennoble by giving the strength to the truth so that it could leadto good, also the ultimate good — God.

Two Fountains of Arethusa. Semantics, literary qualities, and functioning of aspects of Karol Szymanowski’s composition in Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s sonet

The purpose of this article is to define the possible meanings and connotations of musical compositions and their conversion into the lingual substance of poetry. Since the issue is varying internally and always needs particular examples, the undertaken analysis concerns two pieces of art: Fountain of Arethusa by a Polish composer Karol Szymanowski and a sonnet of the same title written by his friend and relative, writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. Firstly, the matter of literary title and its associations is compared in both pieces, which leads to conclusion that while the name of composition generates loose and imprecise connotations, literature requires more specification, nonetheless both the composer and the poet understand mythical subject alike and reception of the work of the latter is based on emotional and semantic qualities similar to those included in the composition. Then, the subject of musical genre is depicted, with emphasis placed on literary connotations and their implications in the process of transcription of music into words. As the poet uses sonnet, which apparently has got poor connections to music, the motives of such choice are enumerated, including significance in European culture and interior dichotomy, both of which one can find in Szymanowski’s work. Further, the article describes relations between music character indications in musical score and particular lexemes in the poem. Musical work can exist in literature in many ways, first of which is being a theme of objective or subjective description. Such illustration of music in the poem is analysed. Then the euphonious and rhythmic features of the text are described in order to prove that music exists in the sonnet in its sound as well as being a scheme which is reinterpreted and imitated by the writer. The analysis shows that although one cannot translate musical matter into words, it is impossible to ignore many intersemiotic correlations between music and literature. Every example of such coexistence – either on the ground of semantics or form – must be studied individually.

Avant-garde compositional techniques in Three diagrams for solo flute by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

The aim of the article is to analyse Three diagrams for solo flute Op. 15 by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki in the light of compositional techniques used in the piece as well as placing the work in the context of the early output of the composer. In order to achieve the defined aims the score has been analysed as well as the statements of the composer and of people related to him. This research enabled the author to precise in what ways Górecki uses techniques such as serialism, punctualism and aleatorism. In the paper composer’s individual and innovative approach to the avant-garde techniques is revealed. However, the idiomatic elements of the whole Górecki’s style are also present in the analysed work.

The article consists of two parts. The first part includes the problem of history and the style of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s early works. The second part is devoted to the analysis and conclusions.

From electronic music to electronic image. Nam June Paik’s Exposition of Music – Electronic Television

Nam June Paik (1932–2006) is now considered to be the most influential creator in visual arts. He is said to be the first artist who presented television as a source of artistic experience. However, nowadays many people forget about his musical beginnings. Starting as a musician, he was inspired by, for example, John Cage, whose philosophical way of thinking had a positive impact on Paik’s future experiments with music and objects. Exposition of Music – Electronic Television (1963, Wuppertal) was artist’s symbolic transfer from music to visual arts, presenting prepared pianos together with prepared TV’s. The article presents the exhibition as well as the environment created by Paik, showing the equality, importance and impact of two not so different kinds of art.

Transformations of models in rock music – the case of No Fun by The Stooges

The article tracks a connection between songs No Fun by The Stooges and Johnny Cash’s I Walk The Line that Iggy Pop briefly hinted in a Dutch documentary Lust For Life. The rocker declared that the Cash’s piece was used by The Stooges as a pattern for No Fun. Indeed, the analysis of a structure of both songs shows many similarities but also exposes elements in which two songs significantly differ in their tonality and construction of phrases.

After a recognition of Iggy Pop’s short career as a blues musician involved in the American blues revival and some structural features of blues, it seems to be possible that the aforementioned differences could derive from the structure of the latter that was blended with the country music pattern.

What shall we do with The Beatles? Methodology of musicology and rock music

The article presents the possible input of musicologists in terms of popular music studies. It describes basic differences between rock and classical music, being still in the centre of attention of traditional musicology, and underlines the necessity of analysing musical recordings instead of relying on score music. New terminology is proposed – both original and based on Western scholars’ experiences – especially relating to formal structure. The author also analyses different approaches to rhythmics (advocating that scholar himself needs to divide a song into bars), harmonics and melodics (presenting popular models), and instrumentation (underlining the importance of sound processing methods).

The Holocaust Experience in Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ Op. 46: Origins, Work, Interpretation

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which the experience of the Holocaust can be represented, embodied and even relived in or through music. The category of experience thus serves as a main methodological tool in this survey, helping to reconstitute the proces of expressing it through music, specifically in Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw Op. 46. A related point to consider is the composer’s engagement in the fight for human rights just before the World War II, a fact that is not yet widely recognized. A brief overview of Schoenberg’s religious, social, and political environment is followed by the history of the Survivor’s... origins, analysis of its literary text, and, finally, interpretation. While discussing the ethical limits of the Holocaust representation, the opinions of Theodor W. Adorno, Ernst van Alphen, Berel Lang, and Giorgio Agamben are consulted.

The dispute about The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams. The opera in the opinion of music critics

In October 1985, several members of the Palestine Liberation Front hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro during its Mediterranean cruise. After the surrender of the terrorists, it came to light that a disabled passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed by one of the kidnappers. The news of the attack was all the more disturbing that Klinghoffer belonged to the Jewish community. The case of abduction of Achille Lauro has been one of the most important topics in the field of international politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a long time.

The idea of creating an opera based on those events came from one of the most distinctive directors of our time, Peter Sellars (1957–), who invited composer John Adams (1947–) to cooperation. Libretto was created by Alice Goodman (1958–). Stage presentation of the fate of the passengers of Achille Lauro was to be a musical background for the wider topic: Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The main aim of the authors of The Death of Klinghoffer, what they repeatedly stressed in interviews, was to present both sides: Jewish and Muslim; not only the design of the libretto and musical development, but also the right direction. Despite these assumptions, since the premiere in 1991 at the Brussels Theatre Royale de La Monnaie, this opera is consequently dividing the audience into its hot enthusiasts and declared opponents. Demonstrations and protests, accusations of anti-Semitic content, presentation and justification of terrorism have led not only to a change in the score, but today they are almost inseparable elements of issue.

This article focuses on the opinions on the opera by critics and music journalists. After presenting the context of creation, examples of the reception, analytical and creative works are shown, such as the opinions found in the reviews of the printed sources, as well as the online ones.

The Metropolitan Opera jako wiodący producent spektakli operowych. Strategia kreowania marki the Met

The aim of an article is to show a strategy of creating brand by Metropolitan Opera according to the theory of global culture industry by Scott Lash and Ceila Lury. The main process which plays a significant role in this strategy is a medialisation of the opera, which provides constant update of this genre and helps it to adapt its form for a contemporary consumer. This strategy changes the relation between product and its recipient on several levels and makes an opera a new, fresh and modern music genre, as well as a theatrical and cinematic experience. Expansive Met brand transforms the operatic industry and introduces numerous innovations as Live in HD, iPod applications, Met on Demand, a brand of a singer etc. There’s also a significant aura around this brand, which imposes a form of thinking and causes certain expectations in relation to the consumer goods made by Met. According to the Roland Barthes’ theory of modern myth, the perception of this brand depends also on its history, memory and tradition, as well as being created by the identity itself. Thanks to the innovations and the nature of the event, an access to the opera nowadays is much easier and becomes a sign of a modern era.

At the turn of the eras. A comparison of the compositional technique of Joseph Riepel and Marcin Józef Żebrowski based on the pro processione pieces 

In this paper, the author compares aesthetic and stylistic attitude of two composers who worked in Jasna Góra Monastery at the turn of Baroque and Classical eras. The aim of this article is to capture the differences and similarities between the creative output of both artists by comparison of their pro processione pieces, which are a local variant of a church symphony. Collating complexive analysis, the author points characteristic solutions implemented by the composers, which gives rise to denotation their output as baroque or classical. In this way both composers were located on a stylistic timeline – Riepel as a baroque composer who already has implemented some classical elements into his style, and Żebrowski as a representant of galant style with baroque remainders. Outline of the compositional technique was depicted, what in the future can be a starting point for the further researches.

http://www.kolonaukowe.muzykologia.uj.edu.pl/documents/34990519/e25fd0b2-414a-4d91-b83d-d1eb02b7891b

The Condition of the Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s Manuscripts in Poland – Reconnaissance

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739–1799) has been remembered in history of music in the 18th century as a significant contributor in developing singspiel (comic opera) genre and as a composer famous among double bass players because of two double bass concertos. But recent studies brought to the fore information about a variety of his instrumental music. Between the others, there are more than 120 symphonies.

This paper is a report-attempt about present condition of extant Dittersdorf symphonies’ manuscripts, preserved in the contemporary Polish area. There are nine archives and libraries mentioned, where these manuscripts are stored. The richest collection of Dittersdorf’s symphonies is located in Pauline Monastery Archive in Jasna Góra in Częstochowa (PL-CZ), where seventeen manuscripts are stored. All of them preserved in good condition, arisen in last quarter of the 18th century.

Other manuscripts we can find in: Archive of Polish Dominicans Province in Kraków (PL-Kd), Cistercian Abbey in Kraków-Mogiła (PL-MO), Benedictine Abbey in Krzeszów/Grüssau(PL-KRZ), Library of Theological Faculty of Opole University (PL-OPsm), Archdiocesan Archive in Poznań (PL-Pa Muz MM), Diocesan Library in Sandomierz (PL-SA) and Special Collections Department of Wrocław University Library (PL-WRu). There is also a piece of information about the manuscript from Pilica (PL-PIk), presumably lost in recent time, which was one of very few examples Dittersdorf’s manuscripts written in the 19th century.

‘Angels and Men" assisted by this Art, May Sing together, though they Dwell apart” – early English prints of court ayres and sacred songs from the second half of the seventeenth century kept in the Jagiellonian Library

The article describes the group of seventeen early English prints from the second half of the 17th century. The prints are part of the collection of the former Preusische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin kept in The Jagiellonian University and contain ayres and religious songs. Fourteen of them were published by John and Henry Playford. The first part of the paper shows the biographies of the publishers and brings the state of research on their work. The second part includes the detailed description of the seventeen of early English prints. The final part presents the content of the prints and biographies of its most important composers

The mechanisms of musical influence on physiological and emotional processes of a listener

Music influences the human on the psychological and physiological level. This article centres on the selected mechanisms of the impact of music on emotional and somatic processes of a listener. The paper discusses the phenomenon of acoustic driving and mechanism for adjusting the emotional state of a listener to emotional expression of music. Publication also concerns the impact of music on the emotions through the activation of imagination and memory. Musical expectations and evaluative conditioning as sources of emotional reactions are analyzed too.

Film stills with the accompaniment of music. On the short cooperation of Witold Lutosławski and filmmakers

Creation of film music is only an episode in all of Witold Lutosławski’s way of oeuvre. He composed music to five films – three of which were not preserved (short films from the 1930s), two others that have been preserved were middle-feature films from the 1940s. This article is an attempt to reconstruct the character of the cooperation between Lutosławski and the directors, outlining the historical con­text and the circumstances of the works’ creation, and in case of the preserved films, to discuss their musical aspect. Uwaga – komunikat filmowy z frontu pracy (Beware! A Film Communiqué from the Front Lines of Work, 1934) and Gore! (Fire!, 1936) were directed by Euge­niusz Cękalski in cooperation with Stanisław Wohl. Zwarcie (Short Circuit, 1935) was created by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson. We know very little about Lutoslawski’s music in these films, but it was always appreciated in press reviews.

After the Second World War documentary films became popu­lar, but they contained propaganda features, which aimed to in­form about the scale of devastation of Polish territory. One of them was Odrą do Bałtyku (Via the Oder to the Baltic, 1946) directed by Stanisław Urbanowicz. The sound element of the film has largely an illustrative character (in neoclassical style), it is a background for the narrative’s comment. Various arrangements of songs (Zasiali górale [The mountain people have sown], Przybyli ułani pod okienko [The lancers have come to the window]) which are incorporated in the soundtrack, underline the propaganda message of the film. The last film with Lutosławski’s music was Suita warszawska (Warsaw Suite, 1946) directed by Tadeusz Makarczyński. Again we can hear illustrative music, even real music (urban folk – polka and waltz), but sometimes music is more independent and abstract. After that the composer got several proposal to write film music, but he did not undertake this anymore (mainly for financial and time reasons).

Polish music in the repertoire of Leopold Stokowski

Nowadays, Leopold Stokowski is recognized as one of the most im­portant conductors of the 20^th Century. The artist was very proud of his Polish origin and conducted twenty two compositions written by eleven Polish composers, including Chopin, Wieniawski, Fitel­berg, Szymanowski, Tansman, Szabelski, Moniuszko, Lutosławski, Panufnik, Jarecki and Paderewski. During his career Stokowski visit­ed Poland four times. The first two visits (1924 and 1958) were private. The conductor’s first Polish concert took place in Warsaw in May 1959 – on this occasion Stokowski conducted Lutosławski’s Symphony No. 1 and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. The press praised Stokowski for bringing from the orchestra his own rich sonorities and for his great sensitivity, and at the same time criticized him for lack of for­mal discipline. Also Lutosławski was dissatisfied with Stokowski’s interpretation. Stokowski conducted in Poland also in May 1960, when he gave a couple of concerts in Zabrze and Bydgoszcz. Both programmes included compositions by Polish composers – Szabelski and Moniuszko. The conductor was also a close friend of Andrzej Panufnik. Stokowski collaborated with Panufnik when conducting his Symphony for peace and later led the world premiere performance of revised version of the work, entitled Sinfonia Elegiaca. He also con­ducted Sinfonia sacra and two other world premiere performances of Panufnik’s works – Katyń Epitaph and Universal Prayer. Stokowski recorded some of Polish compositions – both in studio and during concerts. Some of these performances are still unpublished (Fitel­berg’s Polish rhapsody, Moniuszko’s Fairy tale overture and Szyman­owski’s Stabat Mater), while others have been published (Panufnik’s Universal Prayer, Lutosławski’s Symphony No. 1 and Szabelski’s Tocca­ta). Stokowski’s Polish episodes are intriguing and the present study is the first one to bring to light this forgotten episodes from the great conductor’s biography.

A few remarks about Mass in F by Joseph Poniatowski

The music of Polish composers of the Romanticism is still quite a for­gotten and undiscovered area. One of the examples of that issue are the works of Joseph Poniatowski (1816–1873), a composer who spent a significant part of his life abroad.

His work concentrates mainly on the opera music, which was largely dictated by the environment from which he descended and in which he stayed. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to one of the composer’s forgotten works – Mass in F major, and also to presently selected topics related to this work.

Literary context of music composition. Chopin’s ballad vs. Scriabin’s poem

The following article describes a phenomenon of the correspondence of arts using the works of Frederic Chopin and Alexander Scriabin as an example. The author is interested in the relations between music and literature and Chopin’s ballads and Scriabin’s piano poems, the genres, which are an effect of such relations. The analysis of those works shows that both composers have a different understanding of the essence of music and literature but there are also similarities. The ballads and poems do not convey a literary programme or music illustration but their sound matter is additionally complemented by the genre category, title or commentary instead.

The aim of the paper is to present the concept of topics (Gr. τοπικά) in music, which entails a presentation of its uses in the history of culture and literary studies. Thanks to such a broad context, it will be possible to interpret this Greek term more fully as applied to musicology and to the analysis of selected examples of musical works. The article consists of three complementary parts. The first deals with the origins of the concept, derived from ancient rhetoric and discussed, among others, by Aristotle, Cicero, and Boethius. The second part of the article presents topics in the context of analyses by Ernst Robert Curtius, Janina Abramowska, and Jacek Jadacki in the field of literary studies. The last and most extensive part of this paper is dedicated to the place of topics in musicology on the example of several authors. I discuss writings on topic theory, which since the 1980s has mainly been developed by researchers from Anglo-Saxon countries.

The fourteen sonatas for two harpsichords from the collection Sonate per uno o due Cembali con il basso cifrato by Bernardo Pasquini (British Library of London, shelf mark: Ms. Add. 31501, I) are unique examples of double partimento. Few performers have taken up these works so far; they deserve much more attention. Employing contrapuntal techniques in their execution offers very interesting possibilities. The author describes and presents her own polyphonic interpretations of selected pieces from this collection: Sonata II mm. I, II, III; Sonata V m. II; Sonata VII a due m. I; Sonata X a 2 m. II; Sonata XIII a 2 mm. I and II. This material may serve as encouragement for further studies and performance of these works. They are worthy of becoming part of staple concert repertoires.

The tradition of musical duels harkens back to the days of ancient Greece. One of the earliest examples of musical rivalry is the myth of Marsyas and Apollo, which ends tragically for the satyr. Without doubt, the tournaments of the ancients served as an inspiration for later generations of musicians. In each epoch they took a different form, tailored to the current norms and customs. In the sixteenth century the singing contests of the Meistersingers became extremely popular. With the development of instrumental music in the seventeenth century, duels, in which the main subject of the dispute was the superiority of one of the performers in terms of interpretation and mastery of playing a given instrument, were increasingly growing in importance.

The eighteenth century, in which public concert life flourished and demand for virtuoso instrumentalists consequently grew, brought a genuine boom in musical duels. During that era, musical duels were not only confrontations between individual musicians or their patrons, but also important contributions to the exchange of experiences between artists, the spread of musical novelties and dissemination of the works themselves. Additionally, such ‘battles’ symbolised a confrontation of musical styles, in particular the Italian and the French one.

Jean-Marie Leclair, known as the French Corelli, is considered by many researchers as the founder of the French violin school. Pietro Antonio Locatelli, an heir to the legacy of Arcangelo Corelli, is justifiably considered as the Paganini of the eighteenth century. Despite shared roots in the Italian violin school, their music differs in both form and expression. At first glance, Locatelli’s typically Italian music goes far beyond the previously accepted norms as far as demands placed on the violinists are concerned, whereas Leclair’s French music bears the mark of Antonio Vivaldi’s models set in the latter’s violin concertos. We know that the first confrontation of the violinists took place on 22 December 1728 at Kassel court. Some authors speculate that it was not the only meeting of these two musicians. The surviving accounts suggest that both of them stirred strong emotions among the audiences with their playing.

Despite their enormous importance for the development of violin music, both composers remain underrated. This article briefly outlines the history of musical duels and sheds light on the practice of violin performances in the first half of the eighteenth century. Additionally, I have attempted a comparative analysis of selected violin concerts, namely: Locatelli’s Violin Concerto in G major Op. 3 No. 9 and Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 7 No. 5 by Jean-Marie Leclair. These two come from a similar period in the work of both composers and are close in time of composition to the famous duel.

The output of Polish composers active at the turn of the twentieth century has largely been forgotten and is still waiting to be properly researched nowadays. Józef Wieniawski and his oeuvre, which once used to attract the attention of both Polish and foreign critics, is a case in point. This article seeks to provide a synthetic study of this subject on the basis of 19^th-century literature.

My study of the historical opera I Medici focuses on an analysis of the work’s dramaturgy. In my opinion, the libretto is the key to understanding operatic dramas; it constitutes their primary foundation, on which the subsequent semantic layers of this naturally syncretic musical genre are constructed. In my paper I have therefore analysed the individual components of the libretto, with special emphasis on the persons of the drama, their personality traits, as well as their musical representations in Leoncavallo’s work. Analysis of the dramaturgical aspects of the opera is an essential first step to a consideration of the musical layer, which lies at the heart of my research. In my paper, I have followed the path mapped out by musicologist Luca Zoppelli; however, his work is only the starting point for a more detailed study of the opera’s expressive qualities and the procedures applied for the musical representation of veristic ideas. Verity – not only in the historical sense – becomes a leading category which unifies the opera at every level, from its original source recorded in the chronicles to the composer’s presentation of the story.

Aleksander Nowak’s (*1979) third opera, ahat ilī – Sister of Gods,premiered in 2018, sets a libretto by Polish Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, based on her own novel. This marriage of literature and opera, reinforced by the unique situation in which the author of the text which served as an inspiration and of the libretto is one and the same person, suggests that the work could be defined as a Literaturoper. My paper aims to analyse this composition in terms of genre as well as to represent the unique path of its content’s transformation from a literary into an operatic work, along with an analysis of the verbal component presented from the librettological perspective.

The article concerns the issue of experiencing spatial music. While discussing movement and space in music, Bohdan Pociej draws attention to two types of spatiality in a music work: the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ spatiality. The former derives from the nature of the sound material and the interaction of elements; it remains in the sphere of impressions and metaphors. The latter involves the physical parameters and actual performance of the piece. I demonstrate that the works of twentieth-century composers tend to break through from the internal space, transforming it into the external one. The issue of the body as a centre is present in the works of Edmund Husserl, Yi-Fu Tuan, Edward Hall, and others. The metaphor of movement in language and music has become the subject of research in cognitive science. In the context of spatial music, the metaphorical level coexists with the physical level. During the performance of a composition, listeners may enter into various relations with sound sources but always locate them with reference to their own bodies, which they treat as the centre. The two basic types of external spatiality – the perspective of the observer and the perspective of the participant – correspond to the two ways of understanding the metaphor of movement in music (internal spatiality) proposed by Steve Larson and Mark Johnson.

The article discusses concerts organised by the inhabitants of the Łódź Ghetto and their cultural context. My research focuses on concerts conducted by Teodor Ryder, with preserved posters and programmes used as my sources. The surviving concert reviews written in the ghetto contribute to a better understanding of these events. Analysis of source materials provides me with an opportunity to describe the musical life in the ghetto and discuss the role of music in the lives of its inhabitants.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe John Zorn’s approach to klezmer music and Jewish music tradition in general. The text has been divided into shorter sections. The first part of the article is dedicated to providing an overview of problems concerning the definition of Jewish music. The second part focuses on analysing klezmer motifs in John Zorn’s selected works and Jewish symbols present in the visual component of his recording projects. The last section contains a summary and conclusions.

Much has been said about performance, styles, and interpretation. However, we should ask ourselves where they come from, what they depend on, and what factors influence them. The answer proves very complex. This article deals with the problem of piano technique as an element on which interpretation, sound and expression depend to a large extent. The pi­ano is an instrument with incredible tonal possibilities, but it requires fingering skills, the ability to ‘feel’ the keys and a certain physical strength which is directly related to the technique we use. Achieving a high level in playing requires years of diligent work, perseverance, and determination. Technical proficiency, in turn, facilitates expression and appropriate interpretation, in line with the style of a given musical period and the feelings of the pianist-performer. We are thus talking about two things that inexorably influence each other: technique and its results. The latter depend largely on the former. This article explores the knowledge of piano technique which needs to be acquired so that in the end nothing comes in the way of communication between performers, listeners, and the music.

The article aims to examine the ways in which selected variation techniques are used in Maria Szymanowska’s Nocturne in B-flat Major. The author discusses both conventional thematic modifications and collage-like transformations of brief motifs. By comparing the composition to selected works of John Field and placing it within appropriate historical contexts, the author seeks to illustrate how such an approach to variation not only enriches the conventional form of the nocturne as a genre, but also highlights the possibility of programmatic intent being present.

The second half of the nineteenth century is a neglected period in the history of Polish music, in the aspects of both research and performance. Works by many composers from this period have unfortunately been forgotten. One such composer is undoubtedly Aleksander Zarzycki (1834–1895), also a teacher and piano virtuoso, the author of more than 40 opuses, including many solo songs with piano accompaniment, which have frequently been compared to the songs of Stanisław Moniuszko. Similarly as Poland’s most famous song composer, Zarzycki created two songbooks that belong to the trend of egalitarian songs. He was also renowned for his short piano pieces, written in the salon style with virtuoso elements. One of his most famous works is the Mazurka in G major, popularised by the Spanish virtuoso violinist Pablo Sarasate. Also of note is his Piano Concerto in A-flat major Op. 17, drawing on Fryderyk Chopin’s Piano Concerto in A minor and Józef Wieniawski’s Concerto in G minor. Zarzycki’s works are characteristic of his era, and contain elements of folklore, national style, virtuosity, and the so-called ‘Romantic mood’.

Polish musicologist and author Danuta Gwizdalanka titled her publication Mieczysław Wajnberg: kompozytor z trzech światów [Mieczysław Weinberg: Composer from Three Worlds] (Poznań, 2013). Weinberg (1919–1996) was a Polish composer with Jewish roots who spent most of his life in the USSR. Without any doubt, he can be called ‘a composer from the borderland’ due to his ‘hybrid identity’, which was one of the most important reasons that affected the appreciation of Weinberg’s output both during his lifetime and after death. The main ideas of this paper centre on the category of ‘borderland’ and its representations in Weinberg’s biography and oeuvre. According to the typology proposed by Krzysztof Zajas, Weinberg’s life and works can be considered in terms of the following types of borderland: interdisciplinary, spatial, psychological, existential, sociological, and mythological. Through the prism of the category of ‘borderland’, Weinberg’s creative work manifests itself as a highly individual and invaluable testimony of his times, Far from eclectic and epigonic in relation to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, his oeuvre is unique in the world’s music literature.

The subject of this article are the composition strategies employed to represent the past in animated films produced in the integrated cultural space which Central-Eastern Europe constituted during the communist era. Productions made in two countries, the Soviet Union and in Poland, have been considered. Film examples have been discussed in approximate chronological order, according to the time of production of individual cartoons. By selecting specific movies I do not intend exhaustively to analyse these audio-visual works. I have limited myself to reviewing thematic threads related to the past and, in this context, ideas and tendencies in film music composition.

The process of digitising archives, a universal trend in the last decade, also concerns music resources, thus offering new functionalities to their users. Its effects can facilitate researchers’ work since digital material is readily available and easy to locate. The questions that remain open concern the status of oral history contained in those audio-visual documents, its value and durability, the current results and possible consequences of making these materials accessible on a mass scale, as well as the effectiveness of multidimensional grassroots initiatives, such as cooperation on building virtual collections of materials. What possibilities open up for the musical folklore archives that are currently being discovered? Can digitisation suddenly make them more valuable in the eyes of the society? In this paper, I attempt to diagnose the problem of musical archive digitisation on the example of the ethnomusicological collection of Adolf Dygacz. I stress the importance of local history, which is a common subject in the humanities and has always been part of folklore studies but was not considered in the light of memory studies until very recently.

The aim of this paper is to analyse stylistic changes in Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s output on the example of four selected chamber music works: Quartettino, Op. 5, Concerto for Five Instruments and String Quartet, Op. 11, Little Music 4, Op. 28 and Aria (‘operatic scene’), Op. 59. By applying the methods of structural and auditory analysis as well as style criticism, I discuss the diversity of composition techniques found in these compositions. Additionally, my methodology has allowed me to represent the idiomatic, idiosyncratic features of Górecki’s style and study the ways in which Górecki approached chamber music.

The article attempts to summarise the work of Simon Steen-Andersen and describe his composition titled Black Box Music in the context of fusing visual and musical experiences. I have examined how modern technology influences the composer’s creative process. His achievements and understanding of audiovisuality and the music object have also been compared with Pierre Schaeffer’s concept of acousmatic listening.

The article is an attempt at identifying issues related to the problem of the adaptation of valve mechanisms in Parisian orchestras and Conservatoire. Opinions and postulates of supporters and opponents are being presented, as well as the concepts of combining the valve instrument with the use of the natural horn playing technique. In this context, the perspective of natural horn players, who contributed to the significant delay in the adaptation of valve horns in Paris, are being discussed. Further parts of the text explain the construction of natural horns commonly used in the discussed period in France (cor solo and cor d’orchestre), as well as various issues related to the specific playing technique. The differences between cor alto and cor basse are being examined as well as the concept of cor mixte proposed by Frédéric Duvernoy.

This article is an introduction to the artistic profile of a Polish conductor, composer and guitarist Adam Franciszek Epler. This forgotten creative persona left the artistic legacy of compositions and arrangements for mandolin orchestra ensemble. Moreover, he was the first Polish guitarist playing Polish lute music, a founder of the first Polish guitar trio named Lwowskie Trio Gitarowe and a musician in the most popular interwar radio broadcast Wesoła Lwowska Fala. As a composer and conductor of the Orchestra of Mandolin Society “Hejnał” from Lviv, he also took part in numerous radio broadcasts of Polish Radio Lviv. His musical activities, similarly to the entire mandolin heritage in Poland and guitar history in interwar Poland, requires further research, and this article is one of the first contributions to these research topics.

The purpose of the article is to focus on certain terminological and historical aspects related to the genre of sinfonietta in the Polish music of the 20th and 21st century. In the introduction, the author presents the definition and general characteristics, listing the sources and the most representative works in the Polish music. Additionally, she presents numerical statistics and classification of the sinfonietta in Polish music and on this basis she analyses one of the most interesting works representing the type of sinfonietta-transcription – Sinfonietta for string orchestra by Weronika Ratusińska from 2009. The author analyses the use and manner of modification of musical motifs, the way in which the sound layer is shaped and the relation between Ratusińska’s work and tradition of the genre.

The main purpose of the article is to present an individual approach of analysing and reperforming For a Drummer by George Brecht, a legendary composer and a member of Fluxus. The text is divided into several parts. The first half of the article is dedicated to the history and definition of performance art, the second one focuses on a performer persona and their artistic abilities. The latter leads to an actual analysis of a creative process, starting with a short biographical background of Brecht, followed by reading and understanding of the event score with a culmination found in the author’s re-performance.

The subject of the article is to present the feminist trend in Western ethnomusicology and then to compare it with the state of research in Poland. The query included the latest Western musicological and ethnomusicological literature, as well as the known sources about gender in Polish traditional music. The author, based on the experience gained during the field research carried out in recent years, indicates possible changes in conducting and analysing the field in order to obtain more accurate knowledge about gender performativity in Polish folklore.

The history of the sailors’ instruments is currently a barely investigated area. In the past, bones were used frequently in a variety of music genres, whereas today they seem to be forgotten in certain countries. The simplicity of playing that once was their advantage has also resulted in the small number of written sources concerning the technique of playing as well as the way of producing of this instrument. Despite this fact, bones were the ground for what is called the “musical recycling”. Concertina, in spite of its much more complicated structure and technique of playing, is more popular and has been described in several secondary sources. There are even schools of playing on this instrument available. Unfortunately, concertina is rarely used in concert halls too. Both instruments, thanks to their simplicity and small size, visited almost every part of the world in the era of great sailing ships, but today they remain known and used only in specialised environments.

Edward Mąkosza (born on 13 November 1886 in Lisków, died on 25 April 1973 in Częstochowa) was a Polish composer, pedagogue, conductor, organist, and ethnomusicologist. He was the main organiser of musical life in Częstochowa. He wrote approximately a thousand compositions. He received numerous accolades and was hailed as a hero of the Jasna Góra Monastery.

The paper presents Edward Mąkosza’s biography and is meant to serve as an intro­duction to a comprehensive study of his work. The successive periods of his life (childhood, youth, professional work until and after World War Two have been discussed. Subsequently I focus on the composer’s broadly understood professional activity:his teaching, artistic and community work. I thus attempt to present the professor’s entire biography.

The following article presents the history of Japanese jazz, from the first musical contacts to its contemporary successes and problems of the jazz music market. An important role in the development and evolution of jazz in Japan (even before the post-war US occupation of that country) was played by the presence of American military forces in the Philippines, which, as an American-dependent territory, maintained cultural contacts with the United States, where jazz had been born at the beginning of the 20^th century and became one of the most popular forms of music. Apart from contact with Filipino musicians, who were the first source of jazz education for the Japanese, the rise of jazz cafés (jazzu-kissa) was also important for the development of jazz in the Land of the Cherry Blossom. The cafés played a huge role in generating interest in jazz and shaping musical tastes. The article also shows the influence of jazz on the formation of a modern, American-type lifestyle among the Japanese middle-class. In addition, the article discusses the complex issue of the authenticity of Japanese jazz in relation to American jazz and the role of world-famous Japanese musicians, such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, in overcoming stereotypes. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the universality and at the same time the local character of contemporary Japanese jazz as well as the distinguishing features of jazz in Japan.

Samuel Besler (1574–1625) was born in Brzeg, Lower Silesia. He spent a major part of his life in Wrocław as a cantor at St Bernardine’s Church and then a headmaster of the Holy Spirit school, which belonged to St Bernardine’s parish. The article presents a biography of the composer including the latest discoveries of the author, made in Wrocław University Library and the State Archive in Wrocław. Biographical information is followed by the short description of Besler’s artistic work in which both symptoms of changes in the music of the early 17th century and manifestation of the composer’s fascination with Gregorian chant are present.

The aim of this article is to analyse the presence of Commander in Mozart’s Don Giovanni as well as show the references to other opera depictions regarding the myth of Don Juan. Commander, also known as the Stone Guest, is an animate tombstone figure, which appears in every classic-based version of the story about Don Juan Tenorio (Don Giovanni) in order to summon a rogue to conversion; when he fails to do so, he drags him to hell. The spectacular character of the final scene turned out to serve as an inspiration for numerous opera makers, from Mozart to Rimsky-Korsakov (Mozart and Salieri). This theme, which has not been the subject of research before, is definitely worth exploring.

The musical style of Johannes Brahms has long been known as influenced by music of the earlier epochs. His references to techniques, forms and genres of the Renaissance and Baroque music and the elaborate use of the counterpoint were frequently analysed by musicologists. Less often, however, the potential relationship between word and music shaped by the Baroque music rhetoric was studied, something which was somewhat forgotten in the Romanticism. Brahms’ fascination with the past, which led the composer to study the 18th-century musical literature and treatises, enabled him to recognise many interesting aspects of the Baroque music. Like Bach and his contemporaries, Brahms used rhetorical figures in his early sacred works, e.g. Psalm XIII Op. 27.

Works of Paweł Mykietyn belong to the most characteristic trends of Polish contemporary music. His compositional attitude was individualised in the first decade of the 21st century, and today he is recognised as one of the most original Polish composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Andrzej Chłopecki, when characterising Mykietyn’s music after the premiere of the composer’s II Symphony, compared this work to a “cleverly devised, postmodern toy”. Also Mykietyn’s next, III Symphony (2011), can be considered in the context of the categories of postmodernism and constructivism. This work manifests the postmodern attitude, but it is also marked by strict, “cleverly devised”, constructivist thinking. Its musical language contains intertextual references to hip-hop and rap music; on the other hand, it includes such typical for Mykietyn measures as “(de)gradation form”, “accelerando form”, “permanent accelerando” and dodecaphony, which can be found while analysing the work. III Symphony can be also interpreted in relation to techniques of deconstruction, including both concept and structure of the composition.

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between music and politics on the example of Polish presidential campaigns (1995–2015). The first part will show a current state of research signalised by many researchers from different scientific disciplines: from musicologists to political scientists and sociologists, as well as explain the topicality of the described problem. The next part will introduce a short overview of ways of using music with political aims, mentioned, for example, by Iwona Massaka in her dissertation Music as an Instrument of 88 Political Impact. In this context, the author will characterise the most distinctive form of existence of music in a so-called “election song”—also in relation to Adorno’s theory of popular music. The conclusion is that the most important role in presidential campaigns is played by popular music, especially in a form of song. In that case, music tends to advertise political candidates in a way, as it can emphasize their intended image and influence a growth of support for a politician in a campaign.

This article explores the newly discovered account books of the Lviv Uniate Musical Chapel of the Bishop Leon Szeptycki. The main stay of this musi­cal chapel was the architectural complex of the Cathedral of St George in Lviv. Today, two account books are stored in the department of old books and manuscripts of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv in the archives of the Lviv bishops; they cover the years 1760–1779.

In the first two parts of the article, the author investigates the issues of the founding of the musical chapel and its place of activity. In the third part, there is a list of musicians who were members of this chapel over the years. In addition to the names and surnames, their positions, years of employment, musical instruments which they played and details of their biography are indicated. In the next part, there is a list of pupils of the chapel. It appears that the total number of pupils ranged from 2 to 14. Adult musicians and pupils played various instruments: harpsichord (“kla­wicymbaly”), clavichord (“klawikort”), organ, violin, alto, viola da gamba (“kwartviola”), cello (“basetla”), oboe, bassoon, trumpet and horn; there were singers as well. In the fifth part, the author specifies in what way the Lviv Uniate musical chapel was financed. In the next part, both the church and the secular musical repertoire of the musical chapel are described. In this section, also information from the Warsaw periodicals are used. In the seventh part, the collaboration of the Uniate music chapel with other chap­els and monastic orders, Jesuits, Dominicans and Conventual Franciscans is explored. In the last part, the author examines the information about the human settlements that are found on the pages of the account books.

The purpose of this article is to present the life and organ work of Bruno Stein. The preparation for teaching was very important in Prussia, as it somehow traced a path of development for young people not only willing to be teachers but also musicians in the future. Bruno Stein, when composing organ preludes, recognised this situation and simultaneously became a model teacher as well as a composer of reliable and solid artistic achievements. The crucial element constituting the core of this article is the analysis of the selected preludes for organ. Having taken these compositions into account, one can observe the artistic means that were used by the composer, explore their style and purpose. Apart from organ works, Bruno Stein composed many other vocal, instrumental and vocal-instrumental pieces.

Alois Haba (1893–1973) was one of the most important composers developing the microtonal music in the early 20th century. The list of his works contains many pieces that were composed in quarter-, 1/5- and 1/6-tone systems. In 1927 he published the book titled Neue Harmonielehre,in which he described the innovative harmonic systems using 1/3, 1/4, 1/6 and 1/12 part of tone.

The article briefly presents Haba’s life and work and focuses on the composer’s harmonic ideas from Neue Harmonielehre. The theory of microtonality is confronted with the compositional technique through the analysis of four Haba’s string quartets: 2nd Op. 7, 11th Op. 87, 14th Op. 94 and 16th Op. 98. The analysis focuses on the aspects of microtonality: notation, vertical and horizontal use of new microtonal intervals and texture.

“Life-writing”, manifesting itself in the extremely personal character of the composition, is one of the most important features of Aleksander Nowak’s work, which clearly distinguish him from other composers. “Life-writing” conceals such creative inspirations as the methods and means of composing. Nowak very often draws topics or sound material of the composition from his own life experiences. At the same time, he hopes to achieve a certain type of energy or emotions, which will then to evoke the feelings that are similar to those accompanying the writing of the piece. The issue of conveying in the work any or more specific, though significant, emotions is therefore the first-rate issue. For this reason, in his works, the musical tradition is often combined with the popular and well-known music. A specific representation of the idea of “life-writing” are Nowak’s operas: Sudden Rain for soprano, baritone, mixed choir and chamber orchestra and two-act Space Opera for soprano, mezzo-soprano, countertenor, baritone, bass, mixed choir and symphonic orchestra.

The subject of this article is the analysis of the selected songs—classified as ballads—of the band Pod Budą from Kraków, which purpose is to prove the thesis that the most important song codes in sung poetry are located in lyrics. This thesis is argued by the fact that vocal-instrumental parts of the work underline the importance of lyrics through suitably shaped components of a musical work. Lyrics in sung poetry emphasize therefore: agogic and melodic accents when singing in both high and low volume, and in the instrumental part, apart from the specific dynamics, also tempo. Certain musical technique also helps to trigger the imagination of the recipient as, while listening to the song, the audience can see what the vocalist sings about, that is the space and the situations in which a character of the song is located.

Scordatura is a tuning of a string instrument, which is different than the standard one. It has been used for both plucked and string instruments since the 16th century and it was quite popular in the Baroque era, especially in the case of violins. Because of their specific tuning—based on the same intervals—it is possible to distinguish two types of violin scordatura. The first one relates to the situation when all strings are tuned up or down in the same interval relations. Such tuning is still based on fifths, but the pitches are different than using standard tuning, so it is called transpose scordatura. In the second one, each string is tuned up or down in different interval relation, in another direction or even only some of them are tuned in the unusual way. In this case, violin tuning is based on different intervals than fifths, usually on thirds and/or fourths, although sometimes there are three dissimilar intervals (thirds, fourths and fifths). The second type of scordatura was a very popular technique in the Baroque era and its functions were variable. The main of them were allowing to perform figures, which are impossible in standard tuning, especially double-notes and chords (technical aspect), and changing sound qualities of the instrument (sound aspect). It does not mean that scordatura was used only to achieve these goals. For example, it was sometimes used to imitate other instrument. There are certain examples of such a usage of this playing technique in the oldest (1679–1686) part of the collection of manuscripts connected with activity of Canonesses Regular of St Augustine in Wrocław (provenance St Anna in Arena). The scordatura can be found there in seven manuscripts, and in four of them it is possible that composers (or composer?) tried to assimilate the violin sound and/or technique with other instruments, such as viola, lute or trumpet.

The present article constitutes an introduction to the artistic profile of Austrian composer and piano virtuoso Joseph Woelfl. This forgotten creative personality left an artistic legacy of instrumental music, stage works, numerous orchestral compositions, piano concertos, a concerto for piano and violin, and a chamber concerto. Beyond this, he wrote numerous other chamber works scored for various ensembles; but above all, he created an array of works for solo piano or two pianos, as well as piano pieces of pedagogical character.

The artist was born on 24 December 1773 in Salzburg, where he began his musical education. In 1790, he left his hometown of Salzburg and, probably following in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s footsteps, set out for Vienna. He did not remain there long, however, because in 1791, he was accepted for service to Prince Michał Kleofas Ogiński in Warsaw. The pianist-composer returned to Vienna probably ca 1795. He set out on his next conquest of European cities in 1799. This period of tours lasted until 1801. At this time he visited, among other cities, Prague, Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden. In 1801, he arrived in Paris, where he spent the next four years of his life. In 1805, he left the French capital and set out for London, where he remained until his death. He passed away on 21 May 1812.

In his intensive artistic career, Joseph Woelfl devoted himself mainly to piano performance and composition; beyond this, he also engaged in pedagogical activity. His abundant artistic output is nearly forgotten today, so it is worthwhile to remind a broader audience of this distinguished figure.

Although nowadays the output of Johann Baptist Schiedermayr is almost completely forgotten, in the 19th century the composer was widely recognized as an author of both sacred and secular music. His compositions were performed mostly in Central Europe, but it should be underlined that the preserved manuscripts display an impressive area in which he must have been known. There are thousands preserved sources that confirm his popularity in the past; therefore, it is disturbing as well as intriguing that Schiedermayr is usually overlooked by scholars investigating music of the early 19th century. In my paper, I present life of the composer, including existing literature that concerns this topic, and I make an attempt to reconstruct his output as hitherto no one have done it. It appears that  Johann Baptist Schiedermayr was well-educated and played a crucial role in the musical life of Linz at his time. Besides his achievements as a musician, conductor and teacher, he composed a vast variety of musical pieces, although he focused mostly on church music. Based on the studies done so far, we can assume that he created hundreds of compositions presenting his excellent compositional technique as well as musicality; many of them were also printed. Nevertheless. further research is absolutely necessary in order to broaden knowledge of this brilliant persona and his oeuvre.

This essay aims at discussing the problem of Felix Mendelssohn’s attitude towards different religions shown in his choral piece Responsorium et Hymnus Op. 121 for male choir with cello and double bass. Considering the arguments concerning composer’s self-identity provided by Jeffrey Sposato, we could interpret the Lutheran chorale appearing at the end of this Catholic liturgical work as means by which Mendelssohn tried to manifest his Lutheran faith and therefore to criticize Catholicism.

However, if we examine more carefully the very end of this composition, we would find that the musical material, characteristic for each faith, form a dialectical and dynamic relation. It seems that—instead of criticizing Catholicism—Felix showed the possibility and the necessity of different faiths to coexist, which, according to the idea of religious pluralism and tolerance proposed by composer’s grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, is the only way to discover religious truth. At the end of this paper, I would like to propose that the reception history of Felix Mendelssohn’s work and life from the post-Wagnerian and anti-semitic criticism to so-called Mendelssohn Renaissance in the second half of 20th century also went through a dialectic course. We cannot fully understand and interpret them without taking a multi-aspect view.

The article focuses on the issues of difference and repetition, as defined by Gilles Deleuze, and their possible application to Arnold Schoenberg’s dodecaphonic work, Variations for Orchestra Op. 31. Although Schoenberg’s reflection on these problems comes from the earlier years than Deleuze’s, the correspondence of understanding the difference and repetition between them is striking. Two other terms by Deleuze and Guattari applied to the work are becoming and refrain. Repetition and refrain are associated with the representational moment in the work (motif B-A-C-H as a quote and as a type of refrain) while difference and becoming are associated with the anti-representational moment (dodecaphonic technique, developing variation technique, etc.).

Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1919–1927), known as Gothic Symphony, is possibly one of the most demanding and difficult pieces in symphonic repertoire, the largest-scale symphony ever written, outdoing the most extreme demands of Mahler, Strauss and Schönberg. After the purely instrumental part 1, part 2 is a gigantic setting of Te Deum, inspired by the mighty Gothic cathedrals. This outstanding work has been performed only six times since its premiere in 1961, and has been recorded in studio only once. There are three existing phonographic realisations of this work. Two of them are live recordings made in England. The first of them comes from 1966, when the Symphony was recorded under the direction of Adrian Boult (it was released by the Testament label under catalogue number SBT2 1454) and the second one was made in 2011 under the baton of Martyn Brabbins (it was released in the same year under catalogue number CDA67971/2). The third recording, but the first one that has been available internationally, was made in Bratislava in 1989 under Ondrej Lenárd (it was first released by Marco Polo label in 1990, and later published by Naxos in 2004 under catalogue number 8.557418-19). Made with different orchestras and choirs, under very different sonic circumstances, they also differ considerably within interpretative ideas represented by conductors. They show Brian’s work in different ways, illuminating this composition. Sadly, despite their efforts, the composer’s output is still perceived as peripheral curiosity for connoisseurs.

In the second half of the twentieth century, music for children was enriched by the works of Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska (1912–1994). The Wrocław’s pianist, composer and pedagogue wrote most of her pieces for the youngest and thus the most sensitive recipient. The vast majority of her works is stage music for children, mainly ballet. In this category, Szajna-Lewandowska has no equal. She is the one of the rare composers who devoted most of their works to children. Her music for the youngest comprises not only stage works, but also compositions written for children as performers or listeners. Among them, there are instrumental, vocal-instrumental and choral pieces. Therefore, it can be claimed that Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska is a composer who made a significant contribution to Polish children’s and young adult literature.

The history of the organs in the Cistercian Abbey in Kraków-Mogiła has not been studied so far. The article elaborates this topic based on the results of an archival query. Most of the sources are   preserved in the Cistercian Archive in Mogiła. Examining them, the author discusses the history of instruments in the monastic church and in the former St Bartholomew church. On the basis of the sources, it was stated that at least in the 18th century the monastery church was equipped with two pipe organs. This fact has not been pointed out so far by researchers. The following article is supplemented by archival photographs.

The Archive of St Joseph’s Convent in Kraków contains a collection of musical manuscripts, which have not been studied before. Among books of liturgical use, such as graduals and antiphonaries, there are also small cantionales, full of canto fratto repertoire. The majority of these sources originate from the Convent of Bernardine Nuns in Kraków; however, there are also at least two manuscripts from the Convent in Wilno. The aim of this paper is to present canto fratto repertoire of Benedicamus Domino found in the 18th and 19th century liturgical manuscripts from the Convent of Bernardine Nuns in Kraków. The author indicates sources of studied melodies based on the wide range of liturgical manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries—especially from convents of Bernardine Nuns in Poland, as well as from the Convent of Benedictine Friars in Staniątki—and compares it to the dispersal of canto fratto settings of ordinarium missae. Finally, the paper presents complete index of Benedicamus Domino melodies in the annex.

Infant prodigies were a common phenomenon in the 19th century. They astonished the audience not only through their impressive abilities, but also the innocent beauty and the youthful grace. The perfect example of this is Apolinary Kątski (1826–1879), a violin virtuoso and a composer, known mainly as the founder of the Institute of Music in Warsaw, who, since he was three, was recognizable in concert halls all over Europe.
According to the author, the early stage of the violinist’s activity requires more attention. The presented article sketches the path of young Apolinary’s life from the moment of his first performance in 1829 to May 1838, when he was granted with the famous recommendation of Niccolò Paganini. It introduced him to numerous concert halls of Europe and positively influenced his further artistic activity. The hereby presented paper makes an attempt to find out the date and place of birth of Kątski in the context of the rich musical activity of his family members. It also shows the first artistic tours of the young virtuoso against the background of his artistically talented siblings: a violinist Karol, pianists Stanisław and Antoni, and a singer Eugenia. The crucial moment are reflections on the stay of the family in Paris and their first performances in the musical centre of Europe as well as contacts of the young violinist with Niccolò Paganini.
The studies on the correspondence of the father of the virtuoso, Grzegorz Kątski, and research on the foreign newspapers let the author reconstruct the life of Apolinary Kątski in the very first stage of his musical activity and place him in the context of infant prodigies of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The main aim of this paper is to examine the discourse on Frédéric Chopin that took place in Poland in 1949, when the 100th anniversary of his birth coincided with the culmination of the socialist realist propaganda in the field of Polish culture. The discourse, initiated and moderated under effective surveillance of the Polish People’s Republic’s government, was filled with communist ideology. The authorities aimed at creating a sense of communion in the Polish nation, therefore they undertook numerous actions in the area of cultivating memory of Chopin and reception of his works. The composer was used as a banner under which the culture of socialist realism was to be consolidated. Chopin was presented by the narrators in the socialist realist context in various dimensions.
“Deep humanism”, “truth”, “optimism”, “sincerity” and “democratic features” of Chopin’s music were the crucial notions used by them. Chopin was depicted, among others, as a revolutionist and a prophet of triumph of communism. The oeuvre of Chopin was said to bring together “fraternal countries and nations”, Polish People’s Republic and Soviet Union, while being simultaneously a crucial element of class conflict. The authorities had a tendency to overemphasize folk roots of his compositions, thus among musical genres composed by Chopin the importance of Mazurka was exaggerated. Other genres without such strong folk connotations, as sonatas, ballades and scherzos, were marginalized in the discourse.

Piotr Hertel (1936–2010)—a composer of film, theatrical and stage music (among others the hit Parasolka to words of Janusz Słowikowski). He is the author of music for numerous cartoons made in the animation studio Se-Ma-For in Łódź, including soundtracks for  egendary TV series Miś Uszatek and Plastusiowy pamiętnik. The aim of the article is to characterize music composed by Hertel for the above-mentioned as well as several other movies in the context of his views on the role of music in cartoons and his compositional technique. The broader knowledge on this topic was gained thanks to the interview made with the members of Hertel’s family: his wife Jadwiga and son Michał.

In his projects, Alexander Chen (b. 1981) unites experiences as a programmer, designer, violist and indie rock musician. His Baroque.me is a virtual, audiovisual interpretation of canonical Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 BWV 1007 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Like most of Chen’s projects, it is based on the code which he wrote in 2011. The fruit of the code is – in his own words – “a virtual string instrument”, “an interactive plucked instru-ment” or “an impossible harp” that is out of classification in terms of traditional typology of musical instru-ments. Grounded in mathematical fundamentals of musical string, it presents them in an attractive manner and unveils hidden geometrical beauty of well-known items.
Baroque.me could seem to be too traditional, nostalgic and naive, lacking in deeply critical approach towards postmodern society and deeply attached to premodern understanding of beauty. Its user-friendly interface, ap-pearance typical for contemporary websites and elements of gaming suggest that Chen’s work is made just for entertainment. However, it is exquisitely interesting as an example of contemporary phenomenon, which Paul Elie called “reinventing Bach”. Baroque.me merges various layers of Bach reception: romantic, modern, and finally postmodern, which connects intimacy, entertainment and – characteristic for Bach himself – fascination of science and new technology. Two possible modes of contact with the Chen’s work, that is passive contempla-tion of the old masterpiece and/or (inter)active disruption of its harmony, can be associated with the ethos of the net artist who uses new technology to entertain people and provide intellectual reflection at the same time.

Since the middle of the 19th century, Franz Schubert’s song cycles Die schöne Mullerin and Winterreise are not only considered as an outstanding contribution to the Lied genre, but also as “romantic” compositions par excellence, whose protagonists might be depicted adequately only by performances of male singers. The “masculine nature” (Carl Lafite) of these thoughts, emotions and actions might be inappropriate for female singers. This attitude, which is still present today (even amongst professional musicians and musicologists), though, contradicts not only the performance practice of the early 19th century, but even Schubert’s handling of his songs. In fact, the idea of these two cycles as “men’s cycles” has only developed in the course of the 19th century, when various impacts such as the general upvaluation of the Lied genre, the transfiguration of the composer, the interpretation of his songs as being a personal statement, and the idea of Werktreueshaped the reception of Schubert’s compositions. These factors led to the consolidation of strong and still valid power structures, in which men are regarded as the norm, whereas women (and other alternative voice categories like countertenors) appear as deviation from this norm. These structures are tightly related to similar conditions and principles which have been outlined in the past decades by the masculinity studies on higher levels of our society. In this paper, I will set out this whole process by delineating the performance practice at Schubert’s time, his own attitude (insofar as it is possible), the various influences of romantic musical aesthetics, and the development of the mentioned performance tradition towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, a number of statements from the 21st century will demonstrate that these concepts are still common today, and I will correlate them with some certain principles pointed out by masculinity studies from the last decades.

The work concerns Giovanni Battista Bassani’s output and its reception with a particular emphasis on manuscripts preserved in the collection from parish church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. The oeuvre of this composer has been preserved to a huge amount today—there are 441 manuscripts and 67 prints preserved in 287 copies.

The article consists of two parts. The first chapter presents a list of sources of the composer’s  works, created using the RISM database with special attention to the Polish sources. In addition, a list of sources identified as the transmission of Bassani’s output is presented. The second part of the article characterises the composer’s works preserved in the collection from parish church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski.

Dresden played no role in Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s life, but history made this city one of the most significant places regarding preserved sources of his works. In the Department of Special Collections (German: Sondersammlungen) of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek—Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek in Dresden (English: Saxon State and University Library Dresden, abbr.: SLUB), there are, among others, more than thirty archival sources containing Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s symphonies. That makes it the third richest collection of symphonic works by this composer. The majority of them comes from court’s theatre of Duke Frederick August Braunschweig-Oels in Oels (Öls, Polish: Oleśnica). It is one of the most representative collections of Dittersdorf’s symphonies from all known archives. There are several composer’s autographs, partial autographs, a large variety of works from all periods of his activity, and a few unique copies of symphonies as well. A minor body of Dittersdorf’s symphonies comes from two different sources, until recently unknown. One group is the set of partbooks (contemporary with Dittersdorf), including—apart from Dittersdorf’s works—several dozen movements of serenades, symphonies, string quartets etc. of G.B. Sammartini, J.G. Graun, J.Ph. Rameau, the Stamitz family and J. Haydn, apparently used in performances on the occasion of court activities, not in concerts. The second, from 1860s, is the set of scores, prepared by C. Mehner.

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between Arthur Honegger—a composer, and Jean Cocteau—a poet and playwright. They are often associated with the group under the patronage of Cocteau called Les Six, to which Honegger undoubtedly belonged. The poet gathered young composers around himself and became the initiator of artistic meetings and concerts. Most of them took place between 1917 and 1921. Cocteau wanted to show the path French music should follow. In accordance to that, his aesthetic manifesto Le Coq et l’Arlequinwas published in 1918.

In the first section, Honegger’s and Cocteau’s aesthetic views concerning music, its elements expression are presented and confronted. Next, the composer’s as well as poet’s work is presented by the example of their cooperation.

The analysis of mutual relations leads to the conclusion that, despite many different views, Honegger and Cocteau respected each other and were very kind. The composer significantly departed from the ideals of Cocteau and developed his own individual style resulting from a wide range of musical inspirations. Les Sixwas a short-lived group and Cocteau himself was gradually moving away from his controversial and radical views.

Paul Hindemith is one of the most famous composers of the 20th century as well as the most important thinkers in the field of music. His aesthetic beliefs are inspired mainly by Boethius and Saint Augustine. He raises an issue of ideas of tradition and progress, which seemed quite disputable in the music of the 20th century. Hindemith believes that in the world exist some universal spiritual principles, which must be integrated by composers in the process of creating music. He criticises the approaches in which the technique itself appears to be predominant, therefore he negates such techniques as the twelve-tone chromatic scale. According to Hindemith, the development of music must be based on traditional fundaments, which, however, can be linked to modern styles and ideas. That seems crucial not only in the process of composing, but also in teaching music, both in theory and in practice.

Three musical adaptations of the myth of Phaedra, in which the wife of King Theseus of Athens desperately falls in love with her stepson Hippolytus, were composed in the second half of the twentieth century by three homosexual composers: the dramatic cantata Phaedra for mezzosoprano and small orchestra (1976) by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) after a text by the American poet Robert Lowell, the opera Le Racine: pianobar pour Phèdre (1980) by Sylvano Bussotti (1931-) after a libretto drafted by the composer himself and consisting of a prologue, three acts, and an intermezzo, and, last but not least, the two-act concert opera Phaedra (2007) by Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) after a libretto by the German poet Christian Lehnert.

The aim of this paper is to prove that the three homosexual composers chose a myth about an incestuous—and thus censored—love in order to represent homoerotic desire, labelled as deviant by the coeval heteronormative society and hence condemned by it.

The study sheds light on the aspects of the most famous literary elaborations that affect gay sensibility, and on how the three composers experienced their homosexuality and gave utterance to it in their other works. The analysis of the three works at issue demonstrates that the discourse about gayness takes shape through the interplay of numerous aspects. The elaboration of the literary sources, the organization of the libretto, the characters’ definition, and the mise-en-scène, together with the music, put the myth into that perspective.

ABSTRAKT

Trzy adaptacje mitu o Fedrze – żonie króla Aten Tezeusza, która fatalnie zakochuje się w swoim pasierbie Hipolicie – zostały skomponowane w drugiej połowie XX wieku przez trzech kompozytorów-homoseksualistów. Były to: kantata dramatyczna Fedra na mezzosopran i małą orkiestrę (1976) Benjamina Brittena (1913-1976) do tekstu amerykańskiego poety Roberta Lowella; następnie opera Le Racine: pianobar pour Phèdre (1980) Sylvano Bussottiego (ur. 1931) do libretta naszkicowanego przez samego kompozytora i składającego się z prologu, trzech aktów i intermezza, oraz dwuaktowa opera koncertowa Phaedra (2007) Hansa Wenera Henzego (1926-2012) do libretta niemieckiego poety Christiana Lehnerta.

Celem tego artykułu jest udowodnienie, że trzech homoseksualnych kompozytorów wybrało mit o kazirodczej – a przez to zakazanej – miłości, aby ukazać homoerotyczne pragnienie uznawane przez współczesne im społeczeństwo heteronormatywne za zwyrodniałe i przez to potępiane. Niniejsza praca rzuca światło na ukazane w najsłynniejszych literackich opracowaniach aspekty wpływające na wrażliwość gejów, oraz wykazuje, jak trzech twórców pojmowało swoją seksualność i wyrażało ją w swoich kompozycjach. Analiza trzech utworów pod tym względem wykazuje, że dyskurs o homoseksualizmie kształtuje się poprzez wzajemne oddziaływanie na siebie różnych aspektów dzieła, które obejmują opracowywanie źródeł literackich, uporządkowanie libretta, charakterystykę bohaterów czy inscenizację dzieła, które wraz z muzyką składają się na jego określoną interpretację.

In Poland, feminist perspectives in the field of musicology are still not only very rare, but also hold a highly problematic status. Both an overview of relevant Polish literature and scholars’ experiences reveal a two-sided problem within Polish feminist musicology, where there is on the one hand a great disregard for the study of intersections between sex, gender and music, and on the other hand a significant controversy over how to approach the subject once it is acknowledged. The challenges which today’s feminist musicology in Poland needs to confront, are connected with complex and very often ambivalent way in which classical music culture and the feminist discourse have been shaped since the beginning of the communist era (1945-1989). Reaching back to that period, various historical, political and social factors have influenced the study of women and gender in the contemporary Polish musicology. Three equally crucial issues are investigated in order to understand the status of feminist musicology in Poland: 1) the challenges Polish musicology has had to face due to the communist propaganda; 2) the way in which communist reality has shaped the attitude to feminism in the society; 3) the way in which history of Polish classical music is influenced by the figure of Grażyna Bacewicz. The essay characterizes each of these phenomena and presents how they may have contributed to the problematic status of feminist musicology in Poland nowadays.

ABSTRAKT

Przyjmowanie perspektyw feministycznych w badaniach muzykologicznych nie tylko jest w Polsce nadal wielką rzadkością, ale też ma głęboko problematyczny status. Zarówno istniejące w Polsce prace naukowe, jak i doświadczenia badaczek i badaczy, ujawniają podwójny problem istniejący w polskiej muzykologii feministycznej: z jednej strony powiązaniom pomiędzy muzyką a płcią biologiczną i kulturową poświęca się niezwykle mało uwagi, a z drugiej strony, gdy temat już się pojawia, uchodzi za bardzo kontrowersyjny.

Wyzwania, przed którymi stoi współczesna muzykologia feministyczna w Polsce, mają swoje źródło między innymi w złożonym i często bardzo ambiwalentnym sposobie, w jaki kultura muzyczna i dyskurs feministyczny w Polsce kształtowały się już w czasach PRL (1945-1989). Sięgając aż do okresu komunistycznego, można zaobserwować jak rozmaite czynniki historyczne, polityczne i socjologiczne wpłynęły na badania nad statusem kobiet i płcią we współczesnej polskiej muzykologii. W celu wyjaśnienia statusu muzykologii feministycznej w Polsce omówione zostały trzy istotne zagadnienia: 1) wpływ propagandy komunistycznej na polską muzykologię; 2) wpływ rzeczywistości komunistycznej na recepcję feminizmu w polskim społeczeństwie; 3) sposób, w jaki na historię polskiej muzyki wpłynęła postać Grażyny Bacewicz. Artykuł charakteryzuje każde z tych zagadnień i omawia, w jaki sposób każde z nich mogło przyczynić się do aktualnego stanu muzykologii feministycznej w Polsce.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is considered as one of the most influential cultural figures of his age. His literary work attracted composers throughout the 19th century and beyond. Goethe himself appreciated musical settings of his literary works, as, in his opinion, lyrical poetry without music did not seem complete.

One of the numerous composers who tackled Goethe’s words was Zdeněk Fibich (1850–1900), a Bohemian composer whose name is strongly associated with the genres of opera and melodrama. However, only little is known about his primary compositional attempts in the area of songs. Inspired by settings of Schubert and Schumann the composer was addressed by German poets such as Ruckert, Heine, Eichendorff and Goethe. Moreover, song settings to both German and Czech literary models were emerging throughout Fibich’s life. Similarly to Schubert, Fibich’s first Lieder are dated back to his teen hood. Gefunden, Fibich’s first musical encounter with Goethe, was written as early as 1865. In my paper, I have examined nine settings to Wilhelm Meister Lehrjahren, which originated between 16 and 21 April 1871. Numerous reasons led me to examine these particular songs. Firstly, Fibich’s Goethe settings have been neglected by musicologists as well as performers. None of eleven vocal pieces have been published or recorded to date. Secondly, there is need for a comparative study of these songs with other settings to Goethe. My research addresses the lacuna in the 19th century song studies while asking the following questions: Do the songs have much to offer in comparison to songs by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf and others? What stands behind the omission of the songs? This paper is a starting point in uncovering the significance of forgotten Fibich’s Goethe settings.

ABSTRAKT

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) jest uważany za jedną z najbardziej wpływowych postaci kultury swego czasu, a jego dorobek literacki inspirował wielu kompozytorów dziewiętnastowiecznych i późniejszych. Sam Goethe cenił muzyczne opracowania swoich dzieł, gdyż jego zdaniem poezja bez muzyki nie wydawała się kompletna.

Jednym z wielu kompozytorów, którzy inspirowali się wierszami Goethego, był Zdeněk Fibich (1850-1900), czeski kompozytor, którego nazwisko mocno związane jest z gatunkami opery i melodramatu. Niewiele jednak wiadomo o jego pierwszych próbach kompozytorskich w dziedzinie pieśni. Zainspirowany opracowaniami Schuberta i Schumanna kompozytor cenił takich niemieckich poetów, jak Rückert, Heine, Eichendorff i Goethe. Ponadto podczas całego życia Fibich sięgał po teksty poetów niemieckich i czeskich. Podobnie jak w przypadku Schuberta, pierwsze Lieder Fibicha pochodzą z czasów, kiedy kompozytor był nastolatkiem. Gefunden, jego pierwsze muzyczne opracowanie tekstu Goethego, powstało już w 1865 roku. W niniejszym artykule przestudiowałem dziewięć opracowań tekstu Wilhelm Meister Lehrjahren, które powstały między 16 a 21 kwietnia 1871 roku. Do zbadania tych konkretnych pieśni skłoniły mnie liczne powody. Po pierwsze, utwory Fibicha do tekstów Goethego były długo zaniedbywane zarówno przez muzykologów, jak i wykonawców – dotychczas żaden z jedenastu utworów wokalnych nie został wydany ani zarejestrowany. Po drugie, potrzebne jest przeprowadzenie porównawczych studiów zestawiających te pieśni z innymi opracowaniami tekstów Goethego. Moje badania mają na celu wypełnić lukę, jaka powstała w badaniach nad gatunkiem pieśni w XIX wieku oraz odpowiedzieć na zaistniałe pytania: Jak pieśni Fibicha wypadają w porównaniu z pieśniami Schuberta, Schumanna, Wolfa i innych? Dlaczego dotychczas nie zostały przebadane? Ten artykuł został zamierzony jako punkt wyjścia dla ustalenia znaczenia zapomnianych pieśni Fibicha do tekstów Goethego.

André Caplet is a noteworthy figure in the early years of the 20th century French music. A founding member of the Société Musicale Indépendante and advocate of new contemporary music, Caplet is also remembered for his contributions to Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien and La boîte à joujoux.

Caplet’s musical output from the years pertaining to the Great War and beyond demonstrates a colourful harmonic language. This authentic harmonic language presents itself as a highly complex and sophisticated interweaving of modality and diatonicism, and there are numerous instances of progressive use of modal structures within these mélodies.

This article presents a reflection upon some of the developments within Caplet’s exploration of tonality through the lens of selected works, from 1914 to his death in 1925. Supporting examples of Caplet’s distinctive approach to the fusion of diatonicism and modality, and the usage of synthetic scale structures will be considered.

Caplet’s inventive harmonic language offers much richness in terms of creativity and imagination. He was a composer who favoured different musical processes and conventions. Exploring his compositional approach will help illuminate André Caplet’s individual harmonic language, and place within the field of French musical modernism.

ABSTRAKT

André Caplet jest ważną postacią muzyki francuskiej początku XX wieku. Był założycielem Société Musicale Indépendante i orędownikiem muzyki nowej. Został zapamiętany także dzięki swojemu wkładowi w powstanie Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien i La boîte à joujoux Claude’a Debussy’ego.

Cechą charakterystyczną dorobku twórczego Capleta z lat poprzedzających I wojnę światową i późniejszych jest bogaty język harmoniczny, będący mieszanką harmoniki modalnej i diatoniki, przeplatających się w wyszukany i skomplikowany sposób. Także w Mélodies można odnaleźć wiele przykładów nowatorskiego użycia struktur modalnych.

Niniejszy artykuł jest refleksją nad niektórymi z odkryć na polu tonalności dokonanych przez Capleta w jego wybranych dziełach z lat 1914-1925. Przedstawiono także przykłady innowatorskiego podejścia Capleta do łączenia modalizmów z diatonizmami, zwracając uwagę na użycie struktur powstałych w wyniku ich syntezy.

Nowoczesny język harmoniczny Capleta oferuje bogactwo rozwiązań na polu kreatywności i wyobraźni muzycznej. Był to kompozytor, który używał różnych konwencji i technik kompozytorskich. Analiza jego warsztatu pomoże zrozumieć indywidualny język harmoniczny André Capleta i umieścić go w kręgu francuskiego modernizmu.

The purpose of my paper is to reveal the main features of the mystery genre in the European musical culture of the 19th and the 20th century on the basis of the genre features established in the Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The mystery play genre, as we know, in essence means the firm unity of certain stable features. The complexity of those features consists of two specific elements—religion and social, and a general one—the model of the world for a certain epoch.

If in the mysteries of Ancient civilizations and the Middle Ages, the aforementioned components operated as a firm unity of inseparable elements; later, in the period after the “new times”, especially at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century, the stable elements were disintegrated from each other. This process is discussed on the examples of the following operas:

• The common religion and ethical model—Wagner’s Parsifal;

• The code of moral rules and principles in the social context—Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron;

• The explication of Thomistic ideas in the modern world—Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise.

What is outlined is the unity of necessary components of the genre of the mystery play: multidimensional sources of libretto; a mission of the main hero; the author’s interpretation of the mystery; the abundance of ritual scenes; the relationship between the internal and external

dramaturgical processes; synthesis of the different theatrical genres; static dramaturgy. All of these features suggest a specific type of musical main mystic spheres: divine, terrestrial and demonic. Consequently, the dramaturgy of opera staging has three levels of activity: superficial, inner and upon time.

ABSTRAKT

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest ukazanie głównych cech gatunku misterium w kulturze muzycznej Europy XIX i XX wieku na podstawie jego podstawowych wyznaczników, które ukształtowały się w starożytności i średniowieczu.

Gatunek misterium opiera się przede wszystkim na kilku zasadach. Na złożoność jego cech charakterystycznych składają się: przede wszystkim model świata z danej epoki, a także dwa dodatkowe czynniki – religijny i społeczny.

W misteriach powstałych w starożytności i średniowieczu wymienione komponenty funkcjonowały jako spójna całość współtworzona przez nierozłączne elementy; następnie, w epokach późniejszych, a zwłaszcza pod koniec XIX i na początku XX wieku, stałe części składowe misterium uległy dezintegracji. Proces ten został omówiony na przykładach z następujących oper:

• wspólna religia i model etyczny: Parsifal Richarda Wagnera;

• kodeks zasad moralnych w kontekście społecznym: Moses und Aron Arnolda Schoenberga;

• rozwinięcie myśli św. Tomasza z Akwinu w świecie współczesnym: Saint François d’Assise Oliviera Messiaena.

W moim artykule została podkreślona jedność elementów niezbędnych dla powstania gatunku misterium; wielorakie źródła libretta; misja głównego bohatera; interpretacja samej tajemnicy przez autora; obfitość scen rytuału; relacja pomiędzy wewnętrznymi a zewnętrznymi procesami zachodzącymi w dramaturgii dzieła; synteza wielorakich gatunków teatralnych; statyczna dramaturgia. Wszystkie te cechy nasuwają na myśl specyficzny typ dramaturgii muzycznej, w której kategorie czasu i przestrzeni tworzą trzy główne sfery mistyczne: boską, ziemską i diabelską. W konsekwencji dramaturgia inscenizacji operowej dzieli się na trzy poziomy aktywności: powierzchowny, wewnętrzny i ponadczasowy.

The interbellum was a period when the spontaneous popularity of Jewish music was born. Its expansion in the area of general culture coincided with the rise of a strong institutional and media backing for the musical activities (which means that this music had to have a market value), and on the other hand—with the revival of the national Jewish movement in its various ideological forms, all of which acknowledged a significant role for fostering their own culture. At that time, Prague was the third most important (after Vienna and Berlin) center of Jewish culture in Central Europe, and it strongly influenced the neighboring centers such as Bratislava, Budapest, or—the closest to the author of this abstract—Warsaw. In this paper, various aspects of the Jewish music’s presence in the general musical life of the interwar Prague are being discussed, namely: the open musical activity of Jewish organizations and synagogues, Jewish instrumental and choral music, as well as Jewish songs (synagogal, folk and artistic) performed in the concert halls of Prague, the activity of the group of young Jewish composers (among others: Walter Süskind, Mieczysław Kolinski, Berthold Kobias, Hermann Weiss and Frank Pollak) who formed the so-called “New Jewish School” in music, and finally, writing about Jewish music.

ABSTRAKT

Okres międzywojenny był czasem wielkiej popularności muzyki żydowskiej; jej ekspansja na grunt kultury ogólnoeuropejskiej łączyła się z rozwojem zaplecza instytucjonalnego dla działań kulturalnych, szczególnie zaś ruchu medialnego (co oznaczało, że muzyka zaczęła mieć znacznie rynkowe), z drugiej zaś strony – z odradzaniem się żydowskiego ruchu narodowego, w jego różnorodnych ideologicznych odmianach, z których każda podkreślała ważną rolę wspierania i promowania kultury niematerialnej, stanowiącej jeden z filarów tożsamości żydowskiej. W okresie dwudziestolecia międzywojennego Praga pełniła funkcję trzeciego co do znaczenia (po Wiedniu i Berlinie) ośrodka żydowskiej kultury muzycznej w Środkowej Europie, wywierała znaczny wpływ na inne centra kulturowe, takie jak Bratysława, Budapeszt, czy też najbliższa autorowi niniejszego tekstu – Warszawa. W artykule zaprezentowane zostały kolejno różnorodne aspekty obecności muzyki żydowskiej w tzw. powszechnym życiu muzycznym międzywojennej Pragi, wśród których wymienić należy: działalność muzyczną żydowskich organizacji oraz synagog, prezentacje żydowskiej muzyki instrumentalnej, chóralnej i pieśni (synagogalnej, ludowej i artystycznej) w praskich salach koncertowych, aktywność grupy młodych kompozytorów żydowskich, czyli reprezentantów tzw. Nowej Szkoły Żydowskiej (m.in. Walter Süskind, Mieczysław Kolinski, Berthold Kobias, Hermann Weiss i Frank Pollak) oraz refleksje na temat muzyki żydowskiej obecną w publikacjach książkowych i na łamach prasy.

The article discusses the issue of Jewish musicians’ identity by the example of prewar Galician artists. It emphasizes the role of social and political divisions within Jewish community and the impact of assimilation, liberalism, socialism and Zionism on the musical life of Jews in Galicia. Then, it discusses their influence on individual musicians like: Bronisław Gimpel, Bronisław Huberman, Józef Koffler, Stanisław Lipski, Wilhelm Mantel, Paweł Anhalt, Stefan Schleichkorn, Henryk Guensberg, Józef Neger, Henryk Apte, Izaak Lust, Zofia Lissa, Mordechaj Gebirtig, Nachum Sternheim and musicians active on the stage of popular music. Its aim is to encourage musicologists to reconsider the issue of prewar Jewish musicians’ identity and to use findings of historians and sociologists in musicological literature. They indicate rather complexity, not unilaterality, of the self-identification of Jews in diaspora. Understanding of the Jewish musicians’ work conditions allows to discover the hidden meaning of their actions.

ABSTRAKT

Niniejszy artykuł omawia problem tożsamości muzyków żydowskich na przykładzie przedwojennych artystów galicyjskich. Podkreśla znaczenie podziałów społecznych i politycznych wewnątrz społeczności żydowskiej oraz wpływ idei asymilacji liberalnej, socjalistycznej i syjonistycznej na życie muzyczne Żydów w dawnej Galicji. Następnie omawia ich oddziaływanie na indywidualnych muzyków takich jak: Bronisław Gimpel, Bronisław Huberman, Józef Koffler, Stanisław Lipski, Wilhelm Mantel, Paweł Anhalt, Stefan Schleichkorn, Henryk Guensberg, Józef Neger, Henryk Apte, Izaak Lust, Zofia Lissa, Mordechaj Gebirtig, Nachum Sternheim oraz tych aktywnych na scenie muzyki rozrywkowej. Celem artykułu jest skłonienie do ponownej refleksji nad tematem tożsamości przedwojennych muzyków żydowskich i wykorzystanie w literaturze muzykologicznej ustaleń socjologów i historyków wskazujących na złożoność, a nie jednoznaczność, autoidentyfikacji członków żydowskiej diaspory. Zrozumienie uwarunkowań działalności żydowskich artystów pozwala dopiero pełniej odczytać ukryte znaczenia podejmowanej przez nich aktywności.

The following article concerns contemporary Polish music publishing houses, which in their offer have publications for children who start musical education during professional training. The author presents this area of Polish market in a synthetical way, as well as observes and analyzes tendencies which are visible there. Key market operators are mentioned with short descriptions of their publishing profile, preferred instruments and composers, editorial conditions etc. Few examples of publications are described in a more detailed way—i.e. publications from the offer of three publishing houses: Studio Bis, Crescendo and Euterpe. In the last case, the author interviewed Małgorzata Flis, the illustrator of this publishing house. All the examples are analyzed in an interdisciplinary, editorial-musicological way.

ABSTRAKT

Tematem artykułu jest działalność współczesnych polskich wydawnictw muzycznych, mających w swojej ofercie publikacje dedykowane dzieciom rozpoczynającym swoją edukację muzyczną. Autorka w syntetyczny sposób prezentuje ten obszar polskiego rynku, jak również obserwuje i analizuje obecne na nim tendencje. Wymienia także kluczowe wydawnictwa, prezentując krótko profil ich działalności, preferowane instrumenty, kompozytorów, warunki edytorskie itp., w sposób bardziej szczegółowy omawiając wybrane publikacje trzech domów wydawniczych: Studio Bis, Crescendo i Euterpe. W ostatnim przypadku autorka przeprowadziła wywiad z Małgorzatą Flis – ilustratorką wydawnictwa Euterpe. Wszystkie przykłady zostały zanalizowane w sposób interdyscyplinarny – zarówno ze strony edytorskiej, jak i muzykologicznej.

Franciszek Lilius was one of the most prominent composers of the 17th century Poland, a pedagogue and a choirmaster of Kraków’s Cathedral between 1630 and 1657. The majority of the sources containing his compositions was created after the composer’s death. Many of them are incomplete. Owing to these two facts, we do not know the original version of compositions mentioned by Lilius. One of the examples is the concerto Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia preserved in Staatsbibliothek in Berlin as a German contrafactum with the text “Kompt lasst uns betrachten”. The composition may have been performed during servicesat the Protestant church of St. Mary Magdalene in Wrocław. The text probably was modified and adapted to Evangelical requirements in this place. However, originally the work must have been intended to be performed in the Catholic church during the feast of St. Nicholas (the 6th of December), as is suggested not only by its original name—Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia, but also by the pre-compositional material used in it. This material comprises, on the one hand, the one-voice hymn Nicolai solemnia preserved in e.g. the cantional of Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński from 1639 and the cantional of Literary Archconfraternity in Warsaw from 1668, and on the other hand—its four-voice setting preserved in the Sandomierz and Wawel sources.
If the copyist had not written original Latin title in his manuscript, we would not know what kind of Latin text was previously used by composer. Only this information made it possible to recreate original, missing catholic version of the concerto. The main issue of the article is an attempt to reconstruct the original lyrics of the concerto Mutetta super Nicolai Solemnia and to analyze different problems connected with it.